Road Warrior Snakes Beat Kings

Saturday, October 15, 2022

The Cairns Taipans have put the NBL on notice, they are here to play - flexing their defensive muscle in a huge upset 83-78 win over the defending champions Sydney Kings on their home court.

The Snakes did start their season well on the road beating the South East Melbourne Phoenix and Tasmania JackJumpers, but fell back to earth with a thud on Monday night losing at home to Perth by 29 points.

They then lost captain Tahjere McCall coming into Friday night's trip to Qudos Bank Arena against a Sydney team who hadn’t lost since the end of last regular season and winning a championship in between.

However, the Taipans showed their defensive tenacity from the first whistle, stuck to the game plan for the entire 40 minutes and never allowed the Kings to get into their running game.

Sure, the Kings shot themselves in the foot with just 14/25 from the foul stripe. But that doesn’t take away from all the things the Snakes did right shooting 13/40 from downtown, pulling down 15 offensive rebounds and turning up the heat on Sydney.

Keanu Pinder is fresh off winning the Most Improved Player award but has gone up another level in NBL23 as he finished with another double-double of 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Shannon Scott (16 points, six rebounds, five assists) stepped up impressively in McCall's absence with DJ Hogg (15 points, five rebounds, five assists) influential as well.

Taipans coach Adam Forde won't be getting caught up in any outside noise about his team, but rightfully liked what he saw.

"People are going to react after the Perth game as they naturally did and people are going to react after this game, but for us we're just plotting those KPI's as we go," Forde said.

"We're not trying to go by anyone's beat of the drum other than our own so for us to stay composed when numerous times there was adversity whether it be match ups or particular moments in the game, we just stayed solid.

"Keanu fouled out, we stayed solid. Shannon cramped up, we stayed solid and that's what is important. We're not going to start jumping on this hype train that everyone else might do because we've got this team again in two weeks' time."

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Come for the DJ Hogg three, stay for the Lat Mayen boogie ?<br><br>Catch the final few minutes live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel. We've got a tight <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> contest on our hands. <a href="https://t.co/zZHZA4n1fM">pic.twitter.com/zZHZA4n1fM</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1580864655547076609?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

DJ Vasiljevic was at his usual prolific best with 20 points for the Kings while Xavier Cooks (15 points, eight rebounds) and Derrick Walton Jr (14 points, nine rebounds, six assists) did their best but the Kings were almost always held at arm's length by the resolute Taipans.

Sydney coach Chase Buford said there were 'a lot of things that were frustrating' in the loss.

"Turnovers were frustrating, offensive rebounds were frustrating, we spotted them 10 extra possessions from five offensive rebounds and turnovers - and we were awful with the ball," he said.

"'You can't get ripped one-on-one ... you can't win games if they just take it from you. Despite how bad we played, despite all those errors we (had a chance to win).

"It is a frustrating thing to be happening, something to work on at practice. We got up by 10 points and we just quit, we stopped playing entirely. We were very disappointing on both sides of the ball."

The Snakes were willing to chance their arm against their more-fancied rivals and shot three triples out of four attempts in the early exchanges to take the early advantage.

Cairns was doing well to keep up the ball pressure and turn the match into an arm wrestle, but there were occasional lapses that allowed Walton and Cooks to find space and make them pay. Two missed free throws from Pinder late in the term didn't help.

The Kings were playing with patience and waiting for their opportunities, getting their offensive boards and eased their way out to a 25-19 lead at quarter-time.

That lead pushed out to nine early in the second quarter and tensions boiled over as Cairns coach Adam Forde was issued a technical foul.

That sparked the Taipans who surged back to within three points with some strong work in the paint and clever interceptions hauling them back into the contest.

Soon enough the scores were locked up courtesy of the stifling Cairns defence, but it came at a price with rookie centre Sam Waardenburg benched with three fouls to his name.

The turnovers kept rattling up for Sydney and the Taipans pushed out to a five-point lead of their own before the Kings wrestled it back to take a narrow 40-39 lead into the half-time break.

The arm-wrestle continued throughout the third term as the points dried up, the Taipans doing a magnificent job of containing the running game of the Kings.

A late three-point splash from point guard Ben Ayre meant the Taipans went into the final break leading 61-59 and a major upset was on the cards.

Vasiljevic and Cooks drained early triples to get the home crowd vocal again but Cairns was sticking to the game plan and reaping rewards, still leading by four points with four minutes on the clock.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">There's court vision, and then there's court vision ?<br><br>Derrick Walton Jr + DJ Vasiljevic = PROBLEM ?<br><br>Catch the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NBL23?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NBL23</a> action live on ESPN via Kayo Sports and Foxtel <a href="https://t.co/5rbSFqV4Cx">pic.twitter.com/5rbSFqV4Cx</a></p>— The NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1580843004071673858?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 14, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

More missed free throws down the stretch were becoming alarming for the Kings and a three-point dagger from Majok Deng inside the final minute hurt the home side badly.

They proved decisive, as the Snakes were able to close out their third road win of the season.

The Kings are back in action now on Sunday to play the Brisbane Bullets in their first home game of NBL23. The Taipans don't now play until Thursday where they are again on the road to Melbourne United.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL ROUND 3

SYDNEY KINGS 78 (Vasiljevic 20, Cooks 15, Walton 14)

CAIRNS TAIPANS 83 (Scott 16, Pinder 16, Hogg 15)

BOX SCORE