R16 Preview: Adelaide 36ers v Cairns Taipans

When: 7.30pm (AEST), Tuesday 4 May

Where: Adelaide Entertainment Centre

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

The last time
Cairns 91 (Oliver 25, Ngatai 15, King 14) d Adelaide 88 (Johnson 26, McVeigh 22, Paul 18) – Round 14, Cairns Pop-Up Arena

This last meeting only took place back on April 14 in Cairns but plenty has changed since most notably with Cam Oliver no longer with the Taipans after he was the star in the win for the Snakes with 25 points and 16 rebounds.

This was a brave performance from the Taipans, though, to snap a three-game losing streak with Scott Machado missing with a sore knee to join Majok Deng and Kouat Noi on the sidelines even with Adelaide also minus Isaac Humphries and Tony Crocker.

Adelaide stormed out of the gates and led by as many as 16 points in the second quarter and still led by 10 in the third before they were overrun by a gutsy and spirited Taipans outfit the just refused to say die.

The game looked over when the Snakes led by seven points and had the ball in their hands with little more than a minute left on the clock. 

Some rash attempts to seal the match allowed Adelaide to stay in touch and when Sunday Dech stole the ball and scored to cut that margin to three points, a timeout was called and a thrilling final 20 seconds was assured.

Jack McVeigh had plenty of Cairns supporters feeling nervous when he completed a four-point play from the foul line to cut the margin to just one point with 13 seconds left on the clock. Josh Giddey and McVeigh both had chances to send the match to overtime but their long-range attempts were off target.

In the absence of Machado, fellow import Cam Oliver was enormous with 25 points and 16 rebounds to lead the young side to victory. 

Jordan Ngatai chipped in 15 points while rising star Mojave King had 14 points and five rebounds. There were contributions across the court with Nathan Jawai (13 points) and Tad Dufelmeier (12 points, five assists) also drawing praise.

Daniel Johnson came up big again with 26 points, five rebounds and four assists while McVeigh had 22 points - but was left to rue the crucial shot that was missed in the dying seconds. Brandon Paul had 18 points and six rebounds. 

The now

Plenty has happened both at the Taipans and 36ers since that last meeting even if it was just three weeks ago and it all sets the stage for a fascinating battle on Tuesday night at Adelaide Entertainment Centre.

Just in terms of personnel compared to that meeting back in Round 14 in Cairns, the Taipans are now without Cam Oliver with Venky Jois having come in as his replacement for the rest of the season. Scott Machado also missed that win over Adelaide but will be back for this game while Kouat Noi and Majok Deng remain sidelined.

Then with the Sixers, Tony Crocker and Isaac Humphries are both back playing after missing that last trip to Cairns.

Coming into Tuesday's game, Adelaide is coming off a season-preserving win on Saturday night at home over the Brisbane Bullets while the Taipans haven't played since a loss at home last Sunday night to the South East Melbourne Phoenix.

The 36ers are back at home and they have been in dominant form in their recent appearances at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre beating the Illawarra Hawks by 12 points, Perth Wildcats by 15 points and Bullets by 22 points.

Tuesday night is just the third last home game the Sixers will have for the rest of the season so they can't afford to let the slip if they want to stay in the playoff hunt. Right now the 36ers are looking on at the top four from the outside with an 11-16 record and with nine matches to go to be behind the Kings (14-13), Phoenix (14-13), Hawks (13-14) and Bullets (11-14).

But right now it's an impressive running 36ers outfit. With Daniel Johnson, Isaac Humphries and Keanu Pinder up front, Josh Giddey coming off back-to-back triple-doubles as point guard, and then with Sunday Dech, Brandon Paul, Jack McVeigh and Tony Crocker, they have plenty of weapons.

The Taipans might be out of the playoff hunt with a 7-19 record with 10 games of their #NBL21 season remaining, but they arrive in Adelaide a fresh unit having not played a match for nine days and have had a week to work on their new chemistry to adjust to life without Cam Oliver, and with Venky Jois.

The Snakes have still won two of their past four games, though, and without Oliver, Nate Jawai has had more of a chance to be a dominant presence inside while Tad Dufelmeier has emerged as an exciting guard prospect.

Also with the addition of Jois to Scott Machado, Jois, Jordan Ngatai, Mojave King, Mirko Djeric, Fabijan Krslovic and Jarrod Kenny they aren't without their own threats and contributors to make life tough for a 36ers team fighting to keep their season alive.

The stats

- The Taipans have won of their last six games against the 36ers, but this will be their first visit to Adelaide since a 19-point win late last season that locked in a playoff berth.

- The 36ers finished last season with a 12-16 record from their 28 matches to miss the playoffs in Joey Wright's last season as coach. After Tuesday night, they will have played 28 games in #NBL21 and could very well be 12-16 again with a win over the Taipans. But this time, they still have eight games remaining.

- This game features the battle of assists leaders in the league and a fascinating point guard battle between last year's runner-up MVP Scott Machado and Next Star Josh Giddey. Currently Giddey leads the NBL in assists at 7.7 a game to have overtaken Machado who is dishing out 7.1. Giddey is on fire in recent times averaging 10.5 assists over the last six games and having had at least eight assists in each of the last 12 matches. Meanwhile, Machado started the season going at 9.6 assists over the first nine matches but just 5.5 over the previous 15 games.

The key men

Daniel Johnson – It's always a good sign for a team if it's tough to settle on a key player. We could have gone with Josh Giddey at the point, Isaac Humphries down low, Brandon Paul who is still undefeated in Adelaide or even the emerging Keanu Pinder. But we have settled on DJ fresh off celebrating his 350th NBL game in Saturday night's win over the Bullets. He loves playing the Taipans with a better career record against them than any other team, including a season-high 38 points last season and averaging 25 points against them this season while shooting at 48 per cent from the field. He looks to be a nightmare match up too for whoever the Taipans throw at him.

Nate Jawai – He is the one person that can be a real difference maker for the Taipans. Now without Cam Oliver available for the Snakes, he has moved into the starting line-up and is leading the scoring at 15.5 points a game while playing a season-high minute count. He is really the only big in the league who has the ability to be a completely dominant force if his team can get the ball to him in the block and let him go to work. With single coverage, he can score at will and if double teamed, he is a capable and willing passer who will then rely on his teammates hitting their shots. But if the Taipans want to win, making him the focal point of everything will be the key.

The quotes

Sixers coach Conner Henry knows that if his team wants to stay in the playoff hunt they can't afford to drop too many, if any games in the run home, so no way are they taking Tuesday's clash with Cairns for granted.

"It's a one game series for us every game now. We know that from injuries and fatigue and the bubble, and not playing at a high level offensively and import changes, that's our season," Henry said. 

"But I've always believed in the group and we've put a good game plan together the last four or five games, and we've won some games and we've had a couple of setbacks. We'll continue to fight and get prepared for Cairns on Tuesday. I know they are sitting for a week and they'll be rested and will come in, but if we do the little things and execute, and play for each other we are pretty good when we do that."

The improvement throughout the season of Keanu Pinder is another factor giving the 36ers a different dimensions right now and Henry is being rewarded for showing the faith in sticking with him.

"Keanu had 19 and seven with three blocks and zero turnovers. If you've been tracking us ever since Ice went down he has been continuing to get better and better. His confidence is just soaring right now and he's put the work in and he's happy and healthy," Henry said.

"He has turned the corner for us and I'm really pleased with his effort around the rim in making shots. He made another three threes where in the first two months teams weren’t even guarding him. He has worked tirelessly in practice on it and he has the confidence going right now, and he had a great game. It was a lot of fun to watch."

Star Sixers Next Star point guard Josh Giddey has made history by recording triple-doubles in each of the past two matches, but winning is what he ultimately cares about even though being an NBA lottery pick is in his future in a couple of months' time.

"It's cool to have those stats but if they're not resulting in wins then I'd rather have zero points and get a win than have a triple-double and lose," Giddey said.

"I give a lot of credit to my teammates because they make me look good by making shots and finishing around the ring. I'm lucky to play with two really good bigs and you can say three now with Keanu hitting shots. They make my life so much easier and this was a big win for us. We need to make a late run for these finals and this was a good first step for us."

Taipans coach Mike Kelly has never questioned the commitment of his team this season, but their inability to string their best efforts and energy together for a full 40 minutes during games has been an on-going concern.

That was again the case last Sunday against the South East Melbourne Phoenix where they battled hard over the final three quarters but could never quite make up a big deficit early.

Kelly is glad that his team shows that fighting ability to comeback from slow starts, but is still craving seeing their best for a full 40 minutes.

"I always applaud effort and I thought our effort was poor early and we did miss some shots. Then the energy picked up and the aggression picked up, and I love it when the guys are there like that. I just want to be able to see that for a full 40 minutes," Kelly said.

"We need to find that energy early and keep it going for 40 minutes. We have been on the road but so have a lot of teams, and now we have had two games in the last couple of weeks where we've had a huge deficit early before bringing it back to a manageable score to be playing to win the game. 

"If we don’t let teams jump out early we'll have a chance to win games and that's where we want to be so that's something we have to look at. We just have to find out what group brings that energy early and bring that for the whole four quarters."

Coach Kelly was happy to have more than a week in between games to prepare for this game in Adelaide especially as they try to adjust to their personnel changes in recent times.

"It's always about recovery and preparation so it has been good to have had a full week of Venky with the group. He'd only been able to have two full training sessions with us amidst playing those first three games so it's great to have with us for a full week," Kelly said.

"It's all about getting our new alignment sorted with Cam gone so we were glad to have a full week to work on that along with getting the bodies right and all that stuff that we need to do so we can compete."