Preview: Adelaide vs Cairns - Round 10, NBL24

Friday, December 8, 2023

The Cairns Taipans opened Round 10 with a bizarre loss to the Kings. Can they bounce back?

Saturday, December 9 at 8pm AEDT | Adelaide Entertainment Centre

Watch: Live on ESPN via Kayo Sports | International viewership details
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Adelaide parted ways with head coach CJ Bruton after a pair of Round 9 defeats to New Zealand and Tasmania. The 36ers’ loss to the JackJumpers is the biggest defeat suffered by any team so far this season.

Former head coach and club legend Scott Ninnis has been named as interim coach, and has implied he will make wholesale changes to the side’s rotation. ESPN’s Olgun Uluc has reported Mitch McCarron and Sunday Dech could be benched for the remainder of the season.

Cairns suffered a bizarre defeat to Sydney on Thursday night. The shot clocks stopped working during halftime, which meant the entire second half was played without them. The air conditioning at the Cairns Convention Centre also failed due to power issues.

Adam Forde praised the sportsmanship of the Kings over the course of the second half, and says his side is conscious of the “wounded bull” that is the 36ers this weekend.

Adelaide
59-94 loss to Tasmania
83-96 loss to New Zealand
96-93 win over South East Melbourne

Cairns
83-86 loss to Sydney
115-103 win over Melbourne
79-84 loss to Brisbane

Adelaide’s entire lineup
This might seem like a bit of a cop-out, but with the wholesale rotational changes that have been hinted for this game it’s impossible – and shortsighted – to only keep an eye on one particular player in this battling 36ers lineup.

Interim coach Scott Ninnis was strong in his belief there will be changes within the group heading into the first game post-CJ Bruton, and ESPN’s Olgun Uluc has reported some of the side’s veteran players are set to have their playing time slashed in favour of some of the team’s younger players.

That implies the keys to the team could be handed to the likes of Trentyn Flowers, Nick Marshall and Kyrin Galloway, while players like Mitch McCarron or Sunday Dech could find themselves on the outer.

Regardless of what Ninnis and the 36ers implement, something has to change. Keep and eye on who plays when and how much this weekend for Adelaide, because it will offer an insight into the rest of the season.

“Earlier this week Bruton received pressure from the team’s decision-makers to shake up the playing rotation, sources said. Some of the team’s veteran players were likely to be the victims of that shakeup, sources said ... there has also been significant frustration among the playing group in assistant coach Craig Simpson, sources said.” – ESPN’s Olgun Uluc.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Adelaide 36ers have parted ways with head coach CJ Bruton in the middle of another horror season. <a href="https://twitter.com/OlgunUluc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@OlgunUluc</a> and <a href="https://twitter.com/PeterHooley12?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PeterHooley12</a> discuss Adelaide in a special episode of the Aussie Hoops Hour!<br><br>WATCH ?: <a href="https://t.co/QCQLtUpDI6">https://t.co/QCQLtUpDI6</a><br>LISTEN ?: <a href="https://t.co/lL0WqCNoTl">https://t.co/lL0WqCNoTl</a> <a href="https://t.co/8bkkq3dSt5">pic.twitter.com/8bkkq3dSt5</a></p>— ESPN Australia & NZ (@ESPNAusNZ) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNAusNZ/status/1732657714747371642?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 7, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Jonah Antonio
Being able to call on a sharpshooter like Jonah Antonio seems to be a luxury Adam Forde keeps going back to when he needs another dimension to his offence. He did it in last year’s Playoffs series against Sydney, and he’s done it for the last two games against Melbourne and Sydney.

Antonio found himself out of Forde’s rotation, before being surprisingly injected into the starting lineup against Melbourne, and he played his role to such an nth degree that he started again in the loss to Sydney.

His numbers in the last two games don’t leap off the page, but his elite three-point shooting has helped allow the likes of Patrick Miller and Tahjere McCall to thrive when driving to the basket. Defences know they can’t leave Antonio open, otherwise he’ll start knocking down shots.

He was a split second late on a banked three that would have sent Thursday’s loss to overtime – and the fact he was trusted with the shot shows how highly he’s rated amongst the Taipans group.

He may not be the best or most exciting player on the Taipans’ roster, but they’ve started to function a whole lot better when he’s on the floor.

“When I released it then the buzzer went off so I thought it was good, but it wasn’t so we move on from that ... I go through harder things than a shot not counting. It means nothing and we move onto Adelaide, I’ve forgotten about it already ... I’m happy to play, I know what it’s like not to play, so I try to play as hard as I can every time I’m out there,” Jonah Antonio following the loss to Sydney.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The <a href="https://twitter.com/CairnsTaipans?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CairnsTaipans</a> were this close to forcing overtime ? <a href="https://t.co/n8DKmR0bbB">pic.twitter.com/n8DKmR0bbB</a></p>— NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1732728246993887465?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 7, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Scott Ninnis vs Adam Forde
Scott Ninnis is preparing to take charge of his first NBL game since 2010, and the funky lineup changes he seems likely to implement could well mirror the changes Adam Forde has made to Cairns’ starting group over the past two games.

Ninnis said he’s looking at guys like Trentyn Flowers and Nick Marshall to take the side forward over the remainder of the season, and while Adelaide likely affording more development opportunities to its younger players is different than Forde injecting Jonah Antonio and Josh Roberts in to Cairns’ starting lineup, the hope will be for a similar effect on the group.

Ninnis made the post-season in one of his two seasons in charge of the 36ers, where an elimination final loss to New Zealand marked the seeding of the Breakers’ most dominant eras in the NBL.

Forde’s altered lineup once again performed well against the Kings on Thursday, but the challenge of taking on a wounded club with a new coach that has had all week to prepare is one that faced Mody Maor when Justin Tatum took over at the Hawks.

New Zealand lost that game, but can Forde go one better?

Adelaide has lost the first half in each of its last 11 games. The 36ers have relied on fast finishes for each of their wins in NBL24 – but can they buck the trend and fire out the gates against Cairns?

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Trey Kell III.