Kelly slams players for lack of respect
SOFT, disrespectful and inexcusable.
The usually smiling rookie Cairns Taipans coach Mike Kelly does not use words like those very often.
Just last week, NBL legend Steve Carfino questioned if Kelly is hard enough on his bottom of the ladder team.
But, as he builds into his first season at the helm of an NBL club, he is finding his voice and blasted his players’ poor effort in the first half in their loss to Sydney on Monday evening.
After a Nate Jawai dunk opened the scoring, the Kings put on 10 straight points and soon enough bounced out to a double-digit lead.
From then on, the Snakes would keep pace with the topof-the-table Sydney, but the damage had been done.
“Sydney is a good team and they came out firing, but we were way too soft,” Kelly said.
“We basically started playing at about the middle of the first quarter and I thought we were really lucky to be down 11 at the end of the first quarter because (Sydney) were firing and our guys hadn’t woken up yet.
“The last three quarters, the guys fought and played really hard, but we’re not good enough to (start slowly) … for us to come out and disrespect their talent and their effort is inexcusable.”
Buoyed by their breakthrough victory on Thursday night that ended their 14-game losing skid, the lowly Snakes stuck with the Kings for much of the fourth term but could not find the much-needed killer blow down the stretch.
In a round of NBL basketball that has seen upset after upset, the Snakes followed the theme of the round for long periods but could not break down the Kings when it mattered.
Point guard Melo Trimble (22 points) provided clutch buckets but it was the experience in the two guard slots of their opposition that killed Cairns’ chances.
A Trimble lay-up with just over two minutes to play gave Cairns the lead but from then on, the Kings flicked the switch. A Kevin Lisch bomb at the end of the shot clock, soon after Trimble’s bucket, was followed by a Jerome Randle jumper that iced the game for the Kings.
Randle eventually sealed the game at the charity stripe, claiming a 86-82 victory.
Not even a rare Kelly verbal spray late in the second stanza could fire up Cairns enough against the soon-to-be NBL championship contenders.
Earlier in the night, much of the positivity that flowed on from Thursday’s breakthrough victory was sucked out of the building in the opening term as the Kings built a hefty lead.
It was quickly restored as a 15-4 run to start the second quarter brought the game back to level terms.
The offence ran through centre Jawai in the first half and he made the most of it, handing out four assists, as he threw down a couple of big dunks to also fire up the fans.
Jawai finished with seven assists in an excellent performance.
The Andrew Bogut influence was obvious to see as when he was on the floor the Kings dominated and when he rested, the Snakes hit back.
A first half double-double from the former NBA top draft pick gave his side an eightpoint advantage at the long break. Bogut dominated the opening two terms as Randle bided his time and took over in the third, with a direct hand in the Kings’ first six buckets.
Bogut finished with 17 boards as he controlled the painted area.
Kings counterpart Andrew Gaze praised Cairns’ improved defence. The Taipans now head across the country to face Perth on Friday evening.