‘No time to panic for coach Kelly despite Taipans’ early NBL slump
Cairns has dropped four of its first five games of the season but coach Mike Kelly believes he has the right group to arrest the slump before the first Sunshine Stoush of the NBL season.
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CAIRNS has dropped four of its first five games of the season but coach Mike Kelly believes he has the right group to arrest the slump before the first Sunshine Stoush of the NBL season.
The Taipans produced one of their best defensive efforts of the campaign in the first few minutes of Thursday night’s game at the Snag Pit, but when the home side blinked the unbeaten Hawks struck.
The visitors turned a 12-6 deficit into a 19-12 lead at the first break, then never looked back as they recorded a 90-70 win to improve to 4-0.
Kelly’s men were among the NBL championship favourites before the season, but slumped to 1-4 after five home games to start what was their promising campaign.
But the reigning coach of the year, who led the Snakes to the post-season in NBL20, isn’t panicking before Saturday’s clash with the Bullets (1-2) in Brisbane — their first road trip of the season.
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“I’m getting old now, I’ve played with a lot of teams that were good and a lot of teams that were bad, and I’ve coached with a lot of teams that are good and bad, and I’ve never seen panic help,’’ Kelly said. “We’re not going to panic.
“We’ll try to get better (Friday) then we play the next day against a really good team down in Brisbane.
“We’re not going to panic.
“We chose this group of players because we believe in them, both their character and also their playing ability.
“If we’re panicking, we chose the wrong guys, and I don’t think that’s the case.
“We’re going to stick together and let people outside of our group panic for us and we’re going to try to get better tomorrow and go get those Bullets the next day.”
The Taipans’ import duo of Cameron Oliver and Scott Machado both fell just short of a double-double. Oliver scored 20 points on eight-from-11 shooting (with three-from-five from long range) and grabbed nine rebounds, while Machado found 14 points and nine assists despite plenty of attention from the Hawks’ defence.
While Mirko Djeric chimed in with 11 points, slim offensive returns from Kouat Noi (2 points at 16 per cent) and Majok Deng (four points at 20 per cent), and inaccurate shooting from range (10-of-35, 28 per cent), hurt the Taipans as they fell to yet another loss at their home court.
Hawks import Tyler Harvey was near-unstoppable from range, hitting five-from-six from beyond the arc and finished with 21 points (53 per cent), while Next Star Justinian Jessup was slightly better from the field in his 19-point (57 per cent) performance.
Sam Froling (14pts, eight rebounds) and AJ Ogilvy (eight rebounds) were dominant on the boards at each end.
It was an improved opening few minutes from the home side, but the Hawks capitalised on the Taipans’ inability to get on an early offensive roll.
“I thought we came out with great energy defensively and tried to put our stamp on it defensively, but we could not get rolling offensively,” Kelly said.
“We were the first team to bend there, they made some shots to finish the quarter then felt comfortable throughout after that.”
KELLY BACKS HIS SCORERS
MIKE Kelly has backed his men to find their shot as they chase another breakthrough win in Brisbane on Saturday.
The Taipans coach has watched his side slump to 1-4 to start the season, and while there’s plenty of attention on their defensive shortcomings, a lack of offence hurt the Snakes in their 20-point loss to the Hawks on Thursday.
Imports Cameron Oliver and Scott Machado led the way, while Mirko Djeric hit double figures on 50 per cent from the field.
Fabijan Krslovic, in his second NBL start, had eight points in his 20 minutes on court, but it was slim pickings elsewhere.
Kouat Noi had a quiet night while Majok Deng shot at 20 per cent from his 10 shots, Nate Jawai was unable to find the basket despite his hard work in the paint and Next Star Mojave King scored only one of nine from the field — a dunk in the third quarter — in his first professional campaign.
When asked who could be the man to consistently support Machdo and Oliver, who regularly produce, Kelly said there were plenty of weapons in the Taipans’ arsenal who had to share the load.
“Until tonight, Kouat has been really consistent scoring wise, and him not scoring freely, I think we missed that,” he said post-game.
“We have a number of guys who can score, but when you drop out one of those three — Mirko can fill it up, Majok, Nate, I think we need to score by committee because we have a number of talented guys.
“It’s great to see Jordan (Ngatai) hit a couple of threes tonight and get a little more comfortable on the offensive end, but we need a lot of contributors.”
Ngatai, who hit two good threes during his time on court, said the players were doing all they could to be ready to play despite preparing for their sixth game in 15 days.
“I don’t think it’s too bad,” he said. “We’ve been at home for a while, so we are pretty comfortable, but sometimes that comfortableness can turn into complacency.
“Yes, we have to be comfortable and we’re doing all the right things to recover our bodies, stretching and all that stuff, but we can’t become too comfortable where it leads to more complacency and starts picking up bad habits.
“The guys are doing everything they can to get ready for each game. The coaches are making sure that our bodies our great to go for game day, our physios, masseuses, it’s going good.”
Originally published as ‘No time to panic for coach Kelly despite Taipans’ early NBL slump
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