If Breakers don't win then we have no chance of making finals. Cairns are capable of upsetting, but long term they are out of playoff picture.
Finally got a point in Dillard a la Ware, Randle. Remains to be seen whether in their class but he is of that type, scoring point who can pass.
Our shooters will benefit with spread floor and Dillard working an on ball.
Pledge and Jawai will cancel, so it will come down to the shooting of Glidden,Trice, Loughton, McCarron, Edwin v Dillard, Carter, Penney, Delany and Loe.
Breakers look like they might have an edge even though it is still unproven.
I expect a close game with Breakers pulling away at the death.
I am far from confident though.

Is Dillard playing? I haven't even seen anything to say he's signed.

Wortho a game time decision, ankle injury.

Breakers to lose if they don't have Corey or Stockton.

They will go down by a whisker I predict. Trice will open Breaker's defence unfortunately.

Taipans to win as long as:

1. One of Trice and Gliddon get going
2. Jawai doesn't draw a bunch of mystery fouls then get tech'd for protesting (yes, still angry about that)
3. Weigh and Loughton spend no more than 15 mins on the court between them :-)

Clear blocking foul by Loughton....

Who's doing colour commentary tonight?

Trigger?

NZ are smothering Cairns on D.

Oh. Not great, but still better than Rosen.

Seriously though, how bad has this game been so far? Cairns flat out stink.

11-11.... Friday night basketball, everybody.

Cairns need a guy on the wing who can create a shot badly...

How are we not winning this game by 10. This does look a battle for last, 28 and 29%.

How are we not winning this game by 10. This does look a battle for last, 28 and 29%.

Pretty cool bit of trivia on the broadcast, Alex Loughton is the only Aussie to score 20 or more points in his first 3 NBL games back with Perth.

Cairns need a guy on the wing who can create a shot badly...

More trivia: Tonight is the first game in NBL history where neither team scored 12 or more points in the 1st Q. (from @NBLFacts on Twitter).

It's not one for the time capsule to be sure but who would've expected a game between these two teams to be anyway.

Taipans look terrible coming out after the half time break.

Heh that illegal screen hip check by Jawai had me thinking if its Marcus Smart instead of Carter, Smart would've bounced off all the way to the fifth row.

Horrible officiating down the stretch.

Back court not called on Cairns; then a phanton foul call on the Weeks' drive.

Well that game had everything. Low scoring, an injury, a botched ending ... glad it's over.

Another week of terrible officiating in Cairns.

haha a W is a W.

So... did the commentators not notice there were 2 tech fouls in the last minute?
Not a single mention of them.

I was thinking the same thing about he techs, what the heck happened?! Commentators too busy talking garbage about hairstyles or something similarly mind numbing.

And I cannot recall the last time I watched a game that was just so horrible fm start to finish, ech.

That's our season!!!
We controlled that game all the way then got the jitters when it got close.
Who picked up the T's at the end of the game.
Those 3 missed FT's could have given us life but Finn ended up with the ball and did not really know what he was going to do.
Weigh and McCarron had good ones for Cairns.
Lets hope we can upset some of the favourites to get something out of
the season.

That was truly the epitome of second last vs last!
The worst game of the year,barely QBL quality!

Good god, just got home from that and wishing I could have the last 3 hours of my life back. Any other team would have torn us to shreds. Fortunately the Kirk Penny Experience were about as bad as we were and we somehow managed to edge it at the end but jeez it was a tough watch.

yep, that was seriously ugly.

Kirk Penny was a pleasure to watch, the way he moves WITHOUT the ball is second to none, just going about his job with PURPOSE whilst accumulating points....

^^Huh??

"Back court not called on Cairns;"

Because the possession had reset (due to shot hitting the rim) and Weeks didn't have control of the ball when it went backcourt.

That, and Kirk Penney's foot being on the line by a mm were about the only two calls right all game, but let's not give the refs full credit for the terribleness of this game. The players deserve that.

Anyone know why Fearne doesn't play Heuir, especially in situations like that abysmal first quarter?

We're going to lose him and he's going to flourish at another club (see Nathan Sobey).

The 2 tech fouls were on Vukona first (I didn't see it happen), and then Henare said something to the ref out of the corner of his mouth and looked surprised that the ref heard it and teched him.

CNS clearly missed Wortho's leadership, control and decision making tonight. He is their MVP.

Just what I was thinking the whole game. Wortho would've pulled the team back into it. Cairns had nobody else tonight who could do that.

And Trice is still a flog. Frankly everything Bevo said in the media about Harris this week applies just a such to him.

these imports are kids & these clubs have no money....dont be too harsh.

terrible game, I had thought about going to watch Sunday's game at the NSEC but I don't know if I could sit through that mess for 40mins.

There's something seriously wrong in the Taipans group at the moment, the body language last night was terrible in the time outs. A few of the players weren't acknowledging Fearne when they came off the court either. A big last-chance game like this and you'd think he'd be pulling out every trick he has and fighting for every call but he was very, very subdued.

What's seriously wrong is keeping this coach.End of story,full stop,exclamation mark.

Anon, too late for Dillard. Cairns was a must win.
Now we have to go up against a red hot Sixers outfit that could really give it to us or at the very least win comfortably.
Then we are 8 of 12 and having to go 7 of the last 8 just to have any chance.
We are stuck with Stockton to serve out the season. He was OK and Shea Ili was good but they are not going to be the difference to get us to playoffs.
I just hope we are competitive tomorrow and play with some heart. Loe, Delany have benefited from more time so maybe we can look to next season. Pledge is going great and I'm looking forward to his match up with Hodson.

Why o Why o Why.
If Dillard was to come in he had to come in for both games of the double header. Now it is MUST MUST win against the comp leaders Sunday( to go to 9 of 11) and no margin for error the rest of the season. (4 home including Perth. Melbourne, Cairns and Sydney , 4 away including Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Hawks) requiring at least 6 wins.
I have said for the past month that there were doubts around Stockton. And what was going on with keeping Woodside hanging around.
Dillon rabbits on about club values blah, blah, blah. There is only one value that counts in his line of work and that is a building a winning team (right players) a la Melbourne, Sixers and then keeping it winning (right coaching).
It was clear early in the season that ball handling on this team was weak, and TO's would prove a problem.
Dillon needed to be decisive. Need a miracle now.

Anon was me sorry. Definitely not too late for Dillard, Breakers aren't far off fourth as it stands, even a loss Sunday will likely only leave them two games out, but they would have to close out some season series from there and will need Abercrombie to step back in to good form right off the bat.

Richard Clarke joined Lemanis in Brisbane to resurrect the Bullets.

I'll probably go now that they have announced the new PG is playing on Sunday.