The Taipans recovered nicely after last weekend's whipping to kill off a determined Townsville and keep their finals chances alive.

Both imports came to the party this round with shooting guard Chris Warren (24 points) and Jamar Wilson (18 points, 7 assists) forgetting last week’s disaster and helping to beat the arch rival Crocs 85-81.

All reports tell me it was an exciting game with Cairns falling 8 points behind in the last quarter before storming home to win, much to the delight of the parochial 5000 strong crowd.

The ladder is starting to gridlock somewhat as three sides (ironically all from Queensland) seem to be tussling for the last two playoff spots.

Gold Coast, who are fourth, handed out a 41 point thrashing of Wollongong this round and seem to be playing a very suffocating full court 40 minute style defensive game which other clubs can't seem to handle right now.

Coach Joey Wright did this when coaching the Brisbane Bullets a few years back and it also won him a title there. Townsville, who split this round, still hold third spot but can be vulnerable at times and Cairns, like all clubs, need to win some road games or there will be no encore from last seasons heroics.

The Melbourne Tigers can also still mathematically make it if they win all remaining games but don't hold your breath Tigers fans. They struggled on Friday night with woeful Adelaide (who persist with this losing coaching regime) and look anything but playoff material.

I'm not gonna miss an opportunity to say it again - Ubaka, Dorsey and Dillon should have given Cairns one more year!

The Tigers stood down their trigger finger CEO (the fat controller) in a hope to restore some faith back in their players but from what I can see it's all too little too late and they simply don't have the on court chemistry to hassle any Queensland clubs for finals action.

New Zealand handed Perth a narrow loss in the top of the table clash and barring any huge hiccups, both clubs look to have the top two spots sewn up.

Sydney, Wollongong and Adelaide may as well all start preparing for next year as just like Melbourne this season is just about done. All they have left in the tank is to help shape the top 4 and let's hope that may mean some easy road wins for the Taipans down the stretch. 

Cairns play the in form Wildcats at home this round and losing is not really an option. Good luck boys. 

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