Preview: Round 21 vs Cairns Taipans | Cairns Convention Centre

When: 8pm, Saturday 23 April 2022

Where: Cairns Convention Centre

Broadcast: ESPN; Kayo

The Bullets take to the court for the final time in NBL22. Despite a season of highs and lows, they will be looking to finish on a high against the Taipans in Cairns. After a tough week, the Bullets are still without a number of key players due to injury and illness.

Who won last time?

Cairns 98 (McCall 21, Kuol 17, Machado 14) d Brisbane 88 (Franks 22, Drmic 14, Deng 13) - Round 16, Nissan Arena, Brisbane

In what was the 50th meeting between these two Queensland rivals it was an action packed, fiery encounter. The Taipans were running hot from the tip-off en route to a 98-88 win, establishing an early lead that the Brisbane Bullets could never quite peg back. 

What happened last start?

Both the Taipans and Bullets are coming off losses to the top two teams in the NBL as they attempt to finish the NBL22 season winning note in Far North Queensland.

This will be Brisbane's first game since losing to Melbourne United 88-79 a week previously at John Cain Arena while the Taipans opened Round 21 back on Thursday night with an 87-77 home loss at the hands of the Sydney Kings.

The Taipans have won all three previous meetings in the Sunshine Stoush this season, winning 102-94 back on February in Brisbane and 98-88 last up also at Nissan Arena. The Snakes also won at Cairns Convention Centre 73-69 back on February 24.

Brisbane's last game was a week ago in Melbourne where they fought hard against United despite the absence of Nathan Sobey, Tamuri Wigness, Taane Samuel, Isaiah Moss, Tom Digbeu and Ty Harrison.

They still battled valiantly despite the eventual 10-point defeat with 23 points and 10 rebounds from Lamar Patterson, 20 points, six rebounds and six assists from Jason Cadee, 19 points from Anthony Drmic, and 10 points and nine boards from Robert Franks.

The Taipans suffered a 10-point defeat to the Kings making it a streak of five losses in their past five games afterstrong patch of form.

Against Sydney on Thursday night, Tahjere McCall had 22 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals with Bul Kuol contributing 16 points, Majok Deng 13 points, six rebounds and three assists, and Keanu Pinder 12 points, 14 boards and three blocked shots.

Who’s in form?

Anthony Drmic – Drmic is a tenacious defender, who fights after every ball. But after a tough start to the season statistically speaking, Drmic is finishing NBL22 in great form, averaging 11.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists over the past eight matches. He put up 19 points, three rebounds and three assists while hitting 4/9 from beyond the arc a week ago against Melbourne United and will be looking to finish the season off on a positive note in Cairns.

Tahjere McCall – His energy is infectious and with no Scott Machado in the team for the Taipans, he is asked to have the ball in his hands a lot. McCall creates well, and makes things happen defensively. On Thursday against Sydney he had 22 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals despite fouling out.

STAT LEADERS

BULLETS
Points: Robert Franks 17.73ppg (#5 in the NBL)
Rebounds: Robert Franks 8.69rpg (#4 in the NBL)
Assists: Jason Cadee, 4.85apg (#7 in the NBL)

TAIPANS

Points: Tahjere McCall 14.86ppg

Rebounds: Stephen Zimmerman, 9.63rpg (#2 in the NBL)
Assists: Tahjere McCall, 5.38apg (#3 in the NBL) 

ON THE RECORD

It might be the last game of the season for the Bullets, but captain Jason Cadee isn't short on motivation to want to finish on a high. Following last round’s narrow loss to Melbourne United, Cadee had a clear message.

"We'd like a win! We haven’t beaten Cairns this year so they are our bogey team but as a collective, I'm here next year and right now it's only me and Tyrell signed," Cadee said.

"There's an element of a whole heap of different things but I've always been a big believer even if you are leaving or whatever, you want to leave on the right note. 

"A win to finish the season would be the ultimate goal but you just want to see everyone playing hard and putting their best foot forward. 

"One game, whether it means something or not in a standings point of view, it means a lot to people who are off contract and it means a lot to me as I'm trying to get the Bullets back to a place where we think we can push and compete for titles. 

"This year hasn’t worked out that way and as a collective now it's about finishing off on the right note and how do we get better. We have to work out how we can be a Melbourne or Sydney on top of the ladder next year and being in that spot where we are getting ready to play finals."