A fired-up Cairns Taipans coach Adam Forde has implored the public to go easy on his “tired” team after its three-game winning streak came to an abrupt halt in an ugly fashion.
The Taipans trailed by as much as 41 points in Saturday night’s 115-83 loss to a ruthless South East Melbourne Phoenix at John Cain Arena.
But Forde gave his players a reprieve, suggesting the travel-heavy schedule was to blame for what has been an out-of-character performance for the team this season.
“We ran out of gas,” Forde said.
“I said to the guys in the change room afterwards, I didn’t want them to beat themselves up too much on this.
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“Upon reflection, the last 32 days, I’ve given the guys four days off, in a sense we always do a travel recovery film day if we’re flying, we do game day and every game day we do a shootaround, so I double dip there and then we train.
“We knew this was the toughest stretch and there was a level of robustness that I wanted to build amongst the group.”
It was the Taipans eighth straight loss to the Phoenix dating back to 2023.
Forde could not put his finger on why the Taipans seem to struggle against the Josh King-coached team.
King holds a perfect 8-0 coaching record against the Taipans since his arrival to the league.
“They don’t pose anything different,” Forde said.
“I mean, the last two years, we’ve been really s***t. This is a different team this year.
“I mean, f**k, we beat them in preseason, does that mean something?
“Again, 32 days, four days off, give the boys some f***ing credit, right.”
Taipans stars Jack McVeigh and Keanu Pinder went into the Phoenix game battling illness.
McVeigh could only manage eight points, while Pinder flashed in and out en route to 11 points, five rebounds and three assists.
“Jack and Keanu shouldn’t have played today,” Forde said.
“They’re very ill.
“We’re isolating them from the group.
“They know we need them, so once the game sort of got out of hand, you’re just sitting there going just don’t get hurt.”
From a travel-heavy schedule, there is some relief on the horizon for the Taipans, with a string of four home-state games, including three at the Cairns Convention Centre.
Forde will use the eight day break before Sunday’s home clash with New Zealand Breakers to provide some respite for his players, who he says are tracking well on the court at 4-4 after eight games, but are physically starting to feel the toll of all the miles they have clocked up.
“With some of the older bodies and some of the things that are persistent and nagging, just the little things, we’ve got four practices scheduled before we play, but we don’t have to go pre-season mode in this full week,” he said.
“I don’t need to be all coming down with rain and thunder on them at practice because we gave up 27 offensive rebounds.
“I’m not going to smash them with rebounding drills.
“This is going to be a moment where we can manage some little things amongst half a dozen guys that we don’t want to turn into big things.”
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