"We're not in a good spot": Taipans at a crossroads

Three heavy road losses to open NBL27 have Cairns Taipans coach Adam Forde convinced the lack of resilience his side is showing has to stop now, and he'll find out in Melbourne on Saturday whether his players are willing to dig deep and respond.

Cairns fell to a third straight road defeat to start the season on Wednesday night, beaten 98-75 by the New Zealand Breakers in Auckland.

Forde didn't mince words after the game about where his team sits just four games into a season that promised so much.

"We're not in a good spot at the moment and the big thing is that it's all on the mental side and I'll wear that," Forde said.

"We knew this stretch was going to be a tough part of the schedule and it doesn’t get any easier in a couple of days, but there's no game that's gonna be easy and this was a moment to really build some resilience and we don’t have that.

"It's about building some resilience and we don't have that, and we're battling some ghosts at the moment, and it's all gonna be a good topic to look back on and say this is a crossroads for us where we recognise where our deficiencies are, and we improve on it.

"Or it ends up being a long season and again, I wear that and that's on me and how we've prepared this group, and we have to be a little bit more robust."

The Snakes may have notched a solid home win over the Tasmania JackJumpers last Wednesday night, but they have lost their first three road games of the season by 21 points to the Sydney Kings, 14 to the Adelaide 36ers and 23 to the Breakers.

What Forde is seeing from his team is disturbing so early in the season: a lack of resilience to dig deep and do what's required defensively, and a lack of focus in executing what they're trying to run offensively.

That was clear at Spark Arena on Wednesday night, with Parker Jackson-Cartwright allowed to do as he pleased for the Breakers while the Taipans looked disjointed offensively, managing just 75 points on 39.7 per cent shooting.

The problems have been aired. Now Forde knows it's up to the players to respond.

"It's all upstairs, and it's about trying to find that balance of instilling the confidence to also manage what true accountability is," Forde said.

"The things that we review in video is all on the physical side and we can clean those things up, and there's missed opportunities of where we can look to find better options, and then there's a bunch of shots that didn’t drop with a level of hesitation with some guys.

"It's all to do with the confidence side of things and it's about trying to find that balance."