From venom to vulnerable: Lowery demands "heart" from Snakes

Two days is a long time in the NBL and the Cairns Taipans found that out the hard way over the weekend.

On Friday, behind a career-high 47 points from Jack McVeigh, the Taipans produced a courageous performance to defeat New Zealand 99-95 on their home floor.

Less than 48 hours later in Sydney, Cairns suffered its biggest loss of the Hungry Jack's NBL26 season, losing 119-77 to the Kings.

The poor display in the latter has seen NBL champion Damon Lowery call for "more fight" from Adam Forde's side.

"They [Cairns] are not done winning, but they're not going to make the playoffs," Lowery said on Monday's episode of NBL Overtime.

"As a fan, all you want [is fight]. This is just not for Cairns, this is for every team in the league. I knock off work for my real job, my hard job and I got to go to the game, sit there and watch you lay an egg and not fight when you're down by 30.

"I'm looking at you like you some type of spoiled rotten athlete. All we want is your heart.

"Can you just show up? Can you not get blown out? Can you be pissed off when you get scored on? Can you just show the right level of aggression and energy for 40 minutes? That's all I ask."

While Sunday's blowout loss to the Kings was a tough pill to swallow, considering the Taipans had won the earlier matchup at Qudos Bank Arena this season, NBL champion Pete Hooley believes there are positives to take from Round 13 as a whole.

"I have optimism [in Cairns] after seeing that New Zealand Breakers game, despite laying an egg in Sydney," Hooley said.

"If you say the weekend is a wash, Cairns can still mathematically make the top six. Especially now that they're healthy, which we love to see.

"It's great to see Sam Wardenburg back on the floor. We've been begging for that and now [alongside Jack McVeigh] they have the chance to go win some basketball games.

"While I'm a little mad that Jack didn't go for 50 points, after barely missing a shot all night, he's unstoppable right now and a joy to watch."

The Taipans next play in Adelaide on Wednesday night during an Ignite Cup fixture, tipping off at 7.30pm AEDT, live on ESPN.