NZ Breakers coach Dean Vickerman says the defending NBL champions can't afford to drop any of their five remaining games if want to stay in the hunt for a fifth title in six seasons.
Two more losses to the Breakers, two wins to the Jerome Randle-inspired 36ers, a big victory for Perth over Illawarra and a couple of highlight reel spectacular long-distance buckets were part of another action-packed round.
By the time the dust settled, the fifth-placed Breakers (11-12) had extended their losing streak to six and Vickerman was forced to reject rumours of internal unrest.
The Breakers were 10 up in the final quarter at Cairns (10-13, 6th) on Saturday and five ahead with under two minutes to go, but were outscored 8-0 down the stretch, as they crashed to a costly 90-87 loss.
The defeat, in which they made just 13 of 30 free throws, followed a 89-66 road thumping by Townsville (8-15, 7th) earlier in the round.
"I don't think we can drop one realistically if we want to be a playoff team," Vickerman said following the loss in Cairns.
He dismissed speculation there was disunity in the Breakers camp.
"Internally this group's unity has been outstanding. There's absolutely no truth to the rumour," Vickerman said.
The win for Cairns, sparked by 23 points from Cameron Gliddon, just about keeps the sixth-placed Taipans in the playoff picture."
"We still believe we can get that fourth spot and we're battling it out with the Breakers and Adelaide, so to beat a team we're battling it out with, it's big time." Gliddon said.
The game in Cairns was headlined by a spectacular play from Taipans import Torrey Craig who, with 0.8 seconds left before quarter time, caught a lofted inbound pass and scored from halfway.
It wasn't the longest shot made during the round, with Perth's Jarrod Weekes nailing a three-quarter court prayer on the three-quarter time buzzer against Wollongong.
Adelaide (13-9, 4th) pulled further away from the Breakers with a 96-89 home win over Sydney (5-18, 8th) and a 90-81 home victory over leaders Melbourne United (16-8).
Livewire guard Jerome Randle was a huge factor in both wins, dropping a league season high 41 points against Sydney and scoring 21 of his 26 points against Melbourne in the second half, as United surrendered a 12-point third-quarter lead.
Perth (15-8, 2nd) completed a four-game sweep of Illawarra (14-9, 3rd) with an impressive 95-72 home thrashing of the Hawks.
The Wildcats will go top by the end of next week if they score home wins over Cairns on Monday and Melbourne on Friday.
"We've got a good stretch to come home, so we can reward ourselves and get to write our own ending," Wildcats coach Trevor Gleeson told AAP.
The Hawks were without injured guard Kirk Penney.
"We were mentally soft," Hawks coach Rob Beveridge said.
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