It would have been easy to lose faith long ago, but Cairns coach Mike Kelly remains confident his troops will do more than just make up the numbers in Monday’s clash with the Illawarra Hawks at WIN Entertainment Centre.
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The Taipans come to Wollongong on Monday night with nothing but pride to play for as a forgettable NBL campaign edges closer to a conclusion.
Cairns have won a paltry four times in 24 matches this season and have long been out of finals contention.
Their latest defeat came at the hands of Adelaide 36ers in a 100-91 loss on Saturday night.
Like the Hawks, they’ll get four more chances to enhance their record over the final two weeks of the season.
Kelly believes his men can still finish their campaign on a high note.
“I feel confident with our group that if we come through with a consistent performance, we are going to win games,” Kelly said.
“We were inconsistent on [Saturday night]. It was a tale of two teams. We were two teams and quarter by quarter we switched.
“It is hard to that against good teams.
“The same thing happened last week against Illawarra. We had a poor start and they are really aggressive, feed on that offence.
“We gave them an opportunity to really get fed in that first period last week. We can’t do that again.
“We really need to defend early.”
Illawarra have beaten Cairns in all three of the two club previous meetings this season, with the latest coming in a one point thriller in Canberra on Australia Day.
