Forde Won't Risk Further Injury to Star Guard

While Tahjere McCall is in his own personal race against time to take to the floor against Sydney on Friday night, Taipans coach Adam Forde says he won’t risk playing his star guard if there’s any chance he could make the injury worse.

McCall suffered a partially dislocated shoulder in the Taipans’ Seeding Qualifier against Tasmania and, as a result, was absent from Game 1 of his side’s Playoff Series against Sydney.

After dropping 59 points in the first half Cairns was restricted to just 10 point in the third quarter, as the Kings overran the away side to emerge with an eight-point win.

McCall also missed the first two clashes between the Taipans and Kings in the regular season. In the only contest he took to the floor against Friday’s opposition – a six-point win – he finished with 18 points, four rebounds and four assists.

McCall had his arm in a sling during the Taipans' Play-In Game victory over Perth.

“I don’t ever want to put someone’s health in front of a basketball game. If there’s any indication it could injure him further and rule him out for months, I won’t risk it,” Forde said.

“Tahj wants to play. Tahj has been here for two seasons and this is the best time of the season.

“[The] same level Keanu (Pinder) feels he can’t be a part of it, Tahj feels that. He’ll be pretty eager but we’ll make sure we dot the i’s and cross the t’s before doing anything.”

The Taipans will once again be coming up against one of their former stars on Friday night, as Kouat Noi will once again suit up for the Kings after spending the first three seasons of his professional career in Far North Queensland.

Noi, who played with McCall last season, says regardless of whether McCall plays or not the Kings will stick to the game plan.

“Tahj obviously brings a lot of energy to that team and he brings a lot of scoring power too,” Noi told SEN.

“As long as we can control him and force him to make tough shots I believe we’ll have done our job.

“It’s the same game plan. We’ll just try to be physical, and we know their shooters so we’ll try to run them off the line and grab the offensive rebound.”

Cairns host the Kings at the Cairns Convention Centre on Friday night at 7:30pm AEDT, live on ESPN via Kayo Freebies.