Cairns Taipans vs Adelaide 36ers NBL26 Round 3 Tips - Cotton to score a bag in Cairns

Ryan Tucker

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Last updated: Tue 30 Sep 2025 14:46

Ryan Tucker 30 Sep 2025

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Cairns Taipans vs Adelaide 36ers expert predictions for Thursday’s Round 3 NBL matchup
Tip-off is at 7:30 PM AEST at Cairns Convention Centre
Adelaide 36ers are favorites, tipped to win and cover -5.5.
Bryce Cotton scored 39 pts in his debut; key player for Adelaide.
Cairns have improved defensively but struggled against high-scoring teams; focus on Adelaide’s efficient scoring and betting on team totals.

Cairns Taipans vs Adelaide 36ers NBL26 Round 3 Tips

Cairns Taipans vs Adelaide 36ers NBL25 Round 3 Expert Tips

Adelaide are tipped to take their second win of the season against the Cairns Taipans this Thursday night in a short round 3 slate.

Cairns Taipans vs Adelaide 36ers NBL25 Round 3 Expert Tips
Head to Head
NBL25 Season Series
Offensive & Defensive Rankings
Cairns Taipans Form & Team News
Adelaide 36ers Form & Team News
Cairns Taipans vs Adelaide 36ers Frequently Asked Questions

With the NBL x NBA spectacle happening in Melbourne this weekend there are only 4 NBL matches this week, two of them on Thursday - check the preview of Perth vs Illawarra.

Adelaide had a solid win last weekend to kick off their NBL26 campaign and now travel up to the Cairns Convention Centre to take on a rejuvenated Taipans outfit. Bryce Cotton has seamlessly slotted in to his new club and delivered 39 points in his opener in 36ers colours.

Similarly for Cairns, Jack McVeigh has been dead-eye with a 53% average field goal percentage across his first three games, taking the honours for top score in their win over Sydney on the weekend.

The difference here is going to be how each team can stop the other’s star players from scoring. From the box score it looks like Cairns did well in limiting Sydney to just 36.8 FG% and 74 pts but Sydney were also woeful. Adelaide are expected to be able to score at a more efficient rate which will test the Cairns defence.

The Taipans allowed 114 pts to the Phoenix in round 1 and could see a similar plan of attack from Adelaide’s strike weapons. Take Adelaide to cover the -5.5 line while taking their team total over. Bryce Cotton ladders for Points + Assists is also a solid option.

Adelaide have won 3 of the last 4 against Cairns and have an average win margin of 12+ pts their last 7 victories against the Taipans.
Adelaide averaged 98.7 pts per game in their final 10 regular season games last season and now have the NBL’s best scorer in Bryce Cotton on their team.
Bryce Cotton scored 39 pts and 6 assists in his opener last weekend.
Cairns allowed the SEM guards to score heavily on them in the round 1 blowout.

Head to Head

NBL25 Season Series

Date	Home Team	Score	Line	Total Points
19/01/2025	CAI	ADE 99-75	ADE -3.5	U 191.5
25/10/2024	ADE	ADE 99-93	CAI +7.5	O 176.5
28/09/2024	CAI	CAI 101-97	CAI +6.5	O 176.5

Offensive & Defensive Rankings

CNS Off	Rank	Stat	Rank	ADE Def
79	9	PPG	3	80
44.7	4	RPG	1	32
39.6%	9	FG%	8	46.9%
28.2%	5	3P%	5	26.9%
14.3	9	TOV	2	15

CNS Def	Rank	Stat	Rank	ADE Off
90	7	PPG	4	87
50.3	10	RPG	10	31
41.0%	3	FG%	1	52.5%
25.1%	2	3P%	4	31.0%
7.7	10	TOV	8	14

Cairns Taipans Form & Team News

In the fantastic anomaly that is the NBL schedule, Cairns have now played 3 games heading into this weekend’s matchup, owning a 2-1 record. The most recent win was a 77-74 victory over the Sydney Kings on the road, a game where the Taipans started strong and then consolidated in the 2nd half.

Jack McVeigh was electric, scoring 24 pts on 9-14 shooting while also taking 9 boards and dishing out 4 assists. He has shot an average of 53% from the field this season after returning from the NBA. Reyne Smith and Andrew Andrews both added 16 points to the total while the team restricted their opponent to just 36.8% from the field.

Cairns allowed an average of 95 pts per game to their opponents last season but have tightened up that defensive presence over their past two games following the blowout round 1 loss to SEM.

Adelaide 36ers Form & Team News

Despite the Adelaide 36ers doing Adelaide 36ers things and losing their biggest import in Montrezl Harrell on the eve of the competition starting, the club broke through the noise to record a n 87-80 victory over Brisbane last weekend.

Bryce Cotton busted out in his first NBL game in new colours, scoring 39 points to go with 6 assists, 3 boards and 1 steal. He made 3 turnovers but was still the most dominant player on the court.

Despite missing a star import the 36ers chose to only play 9 players in the matchup with Cotton, Zylan Cheatham and DJ Vasiljevic all playing 32+ minutes. Michael Harris and Keanu Rasmussen played a combined 13 minutes in the win.