Cairns (13-10) consolidated third spot over Adelaide on Saturday with a 108-91 home win.

It was the Taipans' sixth win from their past seven games and their ninth out of 10 at home.

Brisbane notched a third-straight win for the first time this season and a fourth victory from their past five outings with Saturday's crushing 106-77 home defeat of last-placed Illawarra.

They are one of four teams on 11 wins on a congested ladder.

The Bullets (11-11 are just percentage out of fourth behind incumbent Melbourne United, who lost 90-68 on Sunday to New Zealand Breakers (11-12).

The Breakers, who beat Sydney 88-81 in New Plymouth on Friday, are sixth on percentage ahead of Adelaide, with guard Scotty Hopson scoring 52 points across their two wins.

The ladder-leading Kings (16-7) delivered another blow to the finals aspirations of first-season franchise South East Melbourne (9-13) beating them 98-81 in Sydney on Sunday.

Sydney hit 17 three-pointers and the result ended a rough round for the Phoenix, who crashed 97-71 on Friday at second-placed Perth (15-8).

Neither Brisbane coach Andrej Lemanis nor his Cairns counterpart Mike Kelly was talking up their finals' prospects.

"We're looking forward to continue getting better and, hopefully, that will land us in a really good position," said Kelly, stands to to get impressive rookie Kouat Noi back from an ankle injury for the Taipans' next game.

Cairns' celebrated import trio were all big contributors to their latest win.

Kelly acknowledged the efforts of DJ Newbill (28 points), Scott Machado (21) and Cam Oliver (24 and 15 rebounds), but also hailed the work of bench guard Jarrod Kenny, who hit three-consecutive long bombs.

For Adelaide (11-12), big man Daniel Johnson scored an NBL career-high 38 points and point guard Jerome Randle was just one rebound off a triple-double, tallying 21 points, 10 assists and nine boards.

In Brisbane, the Bullets outscored last-placed Illawarra 59-30 in the second half.

Their only loss in their past five matches was by two points to Cairns and they scored at least 95 in all of their wins in that period.

"I think over the last five weeks or so our offence has started to find its rhythm." Lemanis said.

The match in Brisbane was Illawarra's first since Friday's announcement that American star LaMelo Ball had played his last game for the Hawks.

"Now that we know he's not playing, we've got to really strap up the last five games and show what we can do and keep building," Hawks forward Angus Glover said.

Perth's star point guard Bryce Cotton marked his 100th NBL game with 25 points.

"He's the MVP of the league, without a question," Perth coach Trevor Gleeson said.

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Australian Associated Press