Walking to work: Taipans find calm in the chaos

Adam Forde wants his Cairns Taipans playing on the edge, and Saturday night showed exactly how that emotion can be harnessed the right way. A little pre-game chaos may have been just what they needed to loosen up.

The Snakes had lost their first three road games of the season, to the Sydney Kings, Adelaide 36ers and New Zealand Breakers, by a combined 58 points heading into Saturday's clash with Melbourne United at John Cain Arena.

With the pressure mounting on Forde to find some early-season answers, his side delivered. A 14-0 run either side of three-quarter time sparked a 35-point final quarter and an eventual 107-95 win.

It was hardly ideal preparation, though, with the Taipans' players and staff caught in traffic on the way to the venue. Many of the group had to walk to John Cain Arena, while the rest arrived late after battling the congestion.

While Forde wouldn't want that preparation every week, this time it may have been just what they needed to stay loose.

"This was a case where the guys showed up and there's a clinic going on and the court wasn't available so we lost that opportunity to do pre-game because half the team's still missing," Forde said.

"We'd done all our prep and were on court yesterday, and had done a lot of film, and they knew what the scout was so the message was clear and I just said I'd see the guys 90 seconds before jump ball.

"I don't know if I want to do that every time but it was good living in the chaos, and we did."

There have already been times this season, across those three road losses, when the emotion the Taipans play with has worked against them, but Forde doesn't want them to lose that edge.

He saw good signs against Melbourne too. Moments that could have seen them lose their cool and their focus were instead channelled in the right direction.

That's why, even after falling behind by 12 in the third quarter, they turned the tide and outscored United 39-14 over the last 12 minutes to improve to 2-3 on the season.

"We're that emotional team and we had techs, we had unsportsmanlikes and I don't want to curb that because that's how we have to play," Forde said.

"Now today was an example where we're doing really well, felt like we were hard done by with some calls and I get worked up with it.

"We come into half-time and have a bit of a laugh about it, have some banter and it needs to be light with this group.

"This is not a team that will operate through fear and then we find ourselves down 12, the emotions are heightened and this is where you respond.

"We've shown the examples of what happens when it goes that way so this was good that the boys sort of stuck to their guns and we started the fourth quarter with six defensive stops in a row which we've done before.

"This time we capitalised on the offensive end and it's building blocks."

Keanu Pinder led the way for Cairns with 27 points, while Reyne Smith added 21 on 5/10 shooting from long range. Jaylon Brown came alive late, scoring 14 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter after managing just six on 1/9 shooting through three quarters, and Jack McVeigh also chipped in with 20 points and three steals.