R11 Preview: Cairns Taipans v Adelaide 36ers

When: 5.00pm (AEDT), Sunday 28 March

Where: Cairns Pop-Up Arena

Broadcast: SBS Viceland; Sky Sports NZ; SBS On Demand; Twitch

The last time

Adelaide 81 (Johnson 30, McVeigh 14, Giddey 10) d Cairns 71 (Krslovic 12, King 11, Machado 9) – NBL Cup Week 3, John Cain Arena, Melbourne

This meeting took place during the NBL Cup in Melbourne and remains their lone meeting so far in #NBL21 with both Cairns and Adelaide having spent most of their early parts of the season with a string of home matches.

It appeared coming into the game everything was pointing in favour of the Taipans. They were coming off a win against the Kings where Nate Jawai had his most dominant performance of the season with the Sixers minus Isaac Humphries. But that's not how it turned out and on the back of dominant games from Daniel Johnson and Sunday Dech, the 36ers ran away with the game late to claim the 10-point win to snap what was a three-game losing streak at the time.

Having already put up his career-high of 38 points against Cairns last season, Johnson had another night out against the Snakes with 30 points, nine rebounds and two assists on 10/18 shooting from the field and 9/10 from the foul line. Dech was solid offensively with nine points but his defence on Scott Machado was stifling. He also had five rebounds, two steals and a block while hounding Machado into nine points on 3/9 shooting. Jack McVeigh came up big again for Adelaide as that makeshift four man with 14 points, three rebounds and two assists.

There wasn’t a lot to crow about for the Taipans but Fabijan Krslovic impressed again with 12 points and five rebounds while Mojave King showed glimpses of what he can do with 11 points on three triples and a big dunk. But with Cam Oliver, Machado, Mirko Djeric, Kouat Noi and Jawai combining for only 36 points on 14/39 shooting the Snakes were always facing an uphill grind.

The now

The Taipans and 36ers enter Sunday's game both on losing streaks, with each missing key players and desperate for a win but perhaps a little unsure where exactly that's going to come from given the situations they find themselves in.

Since that meeting at the NBL Cup between the two, the Taipans have lost four more matches including the last two in Melbourne against the New Zealand Breakers and South East Melbourne Phoenix, and then last week on the road to Perth and Sydney in the space of three days on opposite sides of the country. That leaves the Snakes on a five-game losing streak with a 4-14 record coming into Sunday's game.

Adelaide, meanwhile, has lost all four of its matches since that win over the Taipans. There were two to close the NBL Cup against the Brisbane Bullets and Wildcats, and then last week back in Melbourne in overtime against the South East Melbourne Phoenix and then on Monday night over in Perth. That has the 36ers on a four-game losing slide and a 7-12 overall record this season.

Not only are both the Taipans and 36ers on losing runs, but they are down on key players for Sunday's game too. Majok Deng is still recovering from an ankle injury for Cairns and he's now joined on the sidelines by Kouat Noi who is expected to miss up to 12 weeks with a knee injury.

Meanwhile, Adelaide remains without starting centre Isaac Humphries with his foot injury while Josh Giddey remains sidelined with a foot complaint and Humphries' replacement in the starting line-up Keanu Pinder will also miss the game on Sunday through illness.

The stats

- With Majok Deng still in the middle of his rehabilitation from an ankle injury and now Kouat Noi going with a knee complaint, there's no hiding from the fact that life has got tougher for the Taipans given Deng and Noi are averaging a combined 21.3 points and 9.4 rebounds a game.

- The 36ers have their own challenges too. Between the missing Isaac Humphries, Josh Giddey and Keanu Pinder, that's taking away an average of 29.1 points, 17.7 rebounds and 8.1 assists a game so the Sixers are going to have to do some work to make up for that with their remaining playing group.

- The Taipans come into the game on a five-game losing streak. A loss will give the 36ers a five-game losing streak too – their first since December 2014.

The key men

Nate Jawai – The last game the Taipans won saw them go inside to him and he was simply unstoppable against the Sydney Kings. He put up a season-best 22 points and six rebounds with the Kings bigs having no answer for him. He has continued to look in good form and virtually unstoppable when he catches the ball down low in the games since, but an argument can be made the Snakes haven’t been able to take full advantage of that. Now with Adelaide missing Isaac Humphries and Keanu Pinder for Sunday's game, they would have been the first two options to guard Jawai. If you look at the next options, you have Daniel Johnson, Jack Purchase, Owen Hulland and even the slimline Jack McVeigh. If the Snakes want to win, there appears no better time to take full advantage of the dominance Jawai could have inside.

Brandon Paul – It's time to unleash the new import for the 36ers. He might be still finding his feet in the league having only played three games and coming straight out of hotel quarantine, but he has all the tools to be a match-winner. He put up 25 points in his first game against Perth, 20 next up against the South East Melbourne Phoenix but was virtually wasted last Monday against the Wildcats playing just 18 minutes and taking five shots. He has all the talent and athleticism to dominate especially with the Taipans not having Kouat Noi or Majok Deng to throw at him. He's already proven he can shoot the ball, create his own shot and finish at the rim. He looks a good defender too and without three key players and with the Taipans sure to focus their attention on Daniel Johnson, this is his time to turn match-winner for the Sixers.

The quotes

Taipans coach Mike Kelly has faith in his team still and at times he feels he might believe in them more than they do in themselves. 

He saw some reason for confidence in their showing against the Kings last Sunday and hopes they can now build on that with the chance for others to step up in the absence now of Kouat Noi.

"I think it gave the guys confidence and it always feels good when you see the ball go through the hoop. I was more worried about the defensive end in the first half and I think eventually we're going to knock down shots with regularity, or more consistently. I think I believe that more than the guys do at times but I do think as a group things like that make you feel good or at least more confident going forward," Kelly said.

"Especially those wings and Jordan Ngatai has been stepping up and playing big minutes for us. There's Mirko, JK and Mojave who we'll be look at to step up more and George as well at the three and the four spot is something he's already been doing for us with Majok going down. We also have our development players Tad Dufelmeier and Jordan Hunt who are ready to play so there may be some more opportunity there for them as well with Kouat out."

Superstar Taipans point guard Scott Machado can't wait for the Snakes to play their first home game since beating the New Zealand Breakers back on February 8, and he hopes his team can build on their confidence from take it up to the Kings a week ago.

"I am looking forward to being back home. It feels like we were on the road for 15 weeks by the end of that game on Sunday so I was ready to come back home. It's been a tough road trip for us and I'm happy to be going back home and playing in front of our fans again," Machado said.

"I do have the confidence in what we should do as a team and it's something that is building within us, and we're just trying to be more consistent day in and day out with both defence and offence. Holding a team like Sydney to 75 points was good but we still have some mishaps that we have to keep tidying up."

Adelaide guard Sunday Dech had a superb game last time out against Cairns including shutting down Machado. He feels like the 36ers are playing better than a four-game losing streak suggests, and hopes they get some reward for effort on Sunday.

"It is frustrating because at the end of the day what we're judged on is the wins and losses, but we can't lose sight of the processes where we're at as a unit and what we are trying to achieve in the back end of this season, and beyond," Dech said. 

"We're definitely taking the positives out of the narrow losses we've had, and feel like we are getting that little bit closer each time. Once you get one, the confidence is up and you can start rolling so we're just looking for that one and hopefully that comes on Sunday for us."

Sixers coach Conner Henry is expecting big things from Brandon Paul come Sunday and moving forward as he continues to find his feet with the team and in the NBL. But he's ruled out Josh Giddey from taking on the Taipans after rolling his ankle last week against the Phoenix.

"Josh won't be ready for our trip to Cairns. The diagnosis is a very positive one and the scans have turned out to be quite in Josh's favour and the team's favour so we're very happy for that. We just have to get through this week which will give him a full week of physio, and then we'll see how he is looking for next week. I should have a better idea of his status by the end of the weekend," Henry said.

"He (Paul) tweaked his ankle late in the game but he struggled to get going a little bit at the beginning of the game and then settled down. We ended up only getting him about 20 minutes but the plan is to play him as much as he can physically handle. 

"He's been good up to this point and he works really hard to get himself prepared, he's a complete pro. We just have to make sure we make sure his ankle is OK and get him ready to go because we have a number of guys hurt."