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The Cairns Taipans might have been without their star point guard but it wasn't an excuse for their home loss, according to coach Adam Forde.
Perth Wildcats coach John Rillie was left delighted with his team's response in winning on the road in Cairns but his Taipans counterpart Adam Forde was making no excuses for his team's failure to execute on their home floor in their 90-87 defeat.
The Wildcats arrived in Cairns for Thursday night's match, having lost their past three games and without star big man Keanu Pinder who had entered concussion protocols.
They were coming up against a Taipans team fresh off beating Melbourne United and Tasmania JackJumpers, both of whom Perth had lost to on the same weekend.
The Snakes were also without their import centre Tanner Groves, but the loss of emerging point guard Taran Armstrong proved a dagger blow and despite the final three-point margin, the Wildcats were on top for much of the evening.
Largely, that was down to a trademark Bryce Cotton performance, as the American made seven three-pointers on his way to 35 points.
Kristian Doolittle came up huge too with 19 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.
The Wildcats welcomed back point guard Tai Webster (six points in 23 minutes) and import forward Dylan Windler (13 points, three rebounds, three steals), leaving Rillie to suggest: "You saw how important it is for everyone to bring what their strength is to our group.
"Tai pushes the ball, Doolittle's aggressive and assertive, and then that gives Bryce some extra space and freedom to operate in.
"When he gets to that mode, it's tough to stop him so everyone has to play their part so that everyone can be at their best."
Clearly the Taipans weren't the same smooth-running machine without Armstrong as they were in the wins over Melbourne and Tasmania, but Forde wasn't interested in excuses as he looks towards their encounter with the Kings in Sydney on Sunday.
"It doesn't matter who's missing," Forde said.
"The job needs to get done with the group we have. It doesn't matter who's missing.
"The execution was disappointing by our group and it doesn't matter who's in or out.
"We're not here making excuses and we're not doing anything else other than the fact that we dropped this one, and we have to review it with a quick turnaround for Sydney on Sunday."
