Cairns Taipans coach Mike Kelly believes there is only a small amount of tampering to do ahead of a must-win semi-final clash against the Perth Wildcats on Sunday. The Taipans will host the Wildcats in Game 2 of their NBL semi-final series, needing a win to stay alive in the playoffs after Perth claimed the first of the best-of-three game series 108-107 on Friday night. For a lot of the game, the Taipans looked the better side, but 17 turnovers hurt them massively. As did Bryce Cotton. The league's MVP got off the leash in the second half also to give the reigning champions a win in overtime. He scored 42 points, more than nullifying the 31 produced by Scott Machado and 25 from DJ Newbill. Cotton didn't score for the first five minutes of the game, nor in the entire second term. He added only five in the third. The 14 he dropped in the final term and nine in the last hurt though; as did every one of his 10 three-pointers. Despite those combined figures, Kelly said he thought his side did well on Cotton and needed to limit him on Sunday. "I thought we did a pretty good job on him; chasing him and making him take tough shots," he said. "When he got to feeling good, he got to feeling good. "But I thought the guys did a good job in staying connected to him and helping on him. They worked their tails off. "He is hard to stop; you have to limit him and can't give him that many shots; 26 shots is a lot of shots to give a really good shooter." If Cairns can't limit Cotton's influence, they face being knocked out of the playoffs in straight sets again by the Wildcats, the same fate they suffered in the 2016-17 season. Perth won the title that season, against Illawarra. The Wildcats have claimed three of the past four championships and also beat Brisbane 2-0 in the semi-final series last season. They took three games to get by Illawarra in 2015-16. Kelly expects his side to arrest their three-game losing streak on Sunday and push the semi-final to a deciding game in Perth on Thursday night. "For sure, I feel really good about this team," he said. "They have played consistently well over the last couple of months. I feel really good about them bouncing back. "Their attitude has been phenomenal; they get hit and get back up and back at them. That's what we're going to do. "This is a group that hasn't been overawed very often. "We were comfortable offensively (on Friday night) and just turned the ball over too much. The Taipans can go a long way to forcing a Game 3 if they can find a way of turning around the 17 turnovers they produced in Perth on Friday night. Australian Associated Press
Coach Mike Kelly backed the Taipans to earn a deciding third game in the playoff series with Perth.
Cairns Taipans coach Mike Kelly believes there is only a small amount of tampering to do ahead of a must-win semi-final clash against the Perth Wildcats on Sunday.
The Taipans will host the Wildcats in Game 2 of their NBL semi-final series, needing a win to stay alive in the playoffs after Perth claimed the first of the best-of-three game series 108-107 on Friday night.
For a lot of the game, the Taipans looked the better side, but 17 turnovers hurt them massively.
As did Bryce Cotton. The league's MVP got off the leash in the second half also to give the reigning champions a win in overtime.
He scored 42 points, more than nullifying the 31 produced by Scott Machado and 25 from DJ Newbill.
Cotton didn't score for the first five minutes of the game, nor in the entire second term. He added only five in the third.
The 14 he dropped in the final term and nine in the last hurt though; as did every one of his 10 three-pointers.
Despite those combined figures, Kelly said he thought his side did well on Cotton and needed to limit him on Sunday.
"I thought we did a pretty good job on him; chasing him and making him take tough shots," he said.
"When he got to feeling good, he got to feeling good.
"But I thought the guys did a good job in staying connected to him and helping on him. They worked their tails off.
"He is hard to stop; you have to limit him and can't give him that many shots; 26 shots is a lot of shots to give a really good shooter."
If Cairns can't limit Cotton's influence, they face being knocked out of the playoffs in straight sets again by the Wildcats, the same fate they suffered in the 2016-17 season. Perth won the title that season, against Illawarra.
The Wildcats have claimed three of the past four championships and also beat Brisbane 2-0 in the semi-final series last season.
They took three games to get by Illawarra in 2015-16.
Kelly expects his side to arrest their three-game losing streak on Sunday and push the semi-final to a deciding game in Perth on Thursday night.
"For sure, I feel really good about this team," he said.
"They have played consistently well over the last couple of months. I feel really good about them bouncing back.
"Their attitude has been phenomenal; they get hit and get back up and back at them. That's what we're going to do.
"This is a group that hasn't been overawed very often.
"We were comfortable offensively (on Friday night) and just turned the ball over too much.
The Taipans can go a long way to forcing a Game 3 if they can find a way of turning around the 17 turnovers they produced in Perth on Friday night.
