The performances of Jack McVeigh and Jaylon Brown spoke for themselves, but the leadership and experience of Shaun Bruce and Jonah Bolden was just as crucial in the Cairns Taipans win, and to help Next Star Luke Paul in his development.
The Taipans arrived at RAC Arena on Sunday afternoon having lost their past two games including at home to the Illawarra Hawks on Thursday and needed a response.
The Wildcats were in a similar situation too having lost their past three, but the Snakes not only had a hot shooting performance starting with 31 points and eight threes in the first quarter, but won the possession battle too by forcing Perth into 18 turnovers.
McVeigh and Brown were outstanding for the Taipans in the win that improved them to 7-6 combining for 58 points on 14/25 three-point shooting, but plenty more players had a big impact too.
That included Jonah Bolden whose numbers might not have jumped out with five points, seven rebounds and four assists, but he made big plays all game especially late after Keanu Pinder fouled out including a picture-perfect pass to Malique Lewis for a dunk.
Then there was 389-game, three-time championship winning point guard Shaun Bruce who showed all of his poise and experience with 14 points and two assists with 3/3 three-point shooting.
He was so impressive that coach Adam Forde stuck with him and not 17-year-old Luke Paul down the stretch, and it paid dividends as he showed why having such veterans can be so important.
"It's good as well for Luke to see how that looks, right?" Forde said.
"You've got 19 years difference between them with Brucey and Luke's been great so it's good for him to see how Brucey can get it done because he's such a high-level thinker.
"Even with how well he's been coached in the past with the situations and teams he's been in, he takes a little bit from that and his journey so there's 19 years of some really good knowledge and his body's great.
"He had a great NBL1 season and we brought him up here with the idea that we needed a little bit more.
"We knew we're going to have a young man playing some high volume minutes at the point guard, and we needed days too when we needed Brucey too.
"He's not just going to be a towel waver, he was going to be contributing and today's an example of him contributing."
Paul started his second straight game for the Taipans and played 16 minutes for two points and two steals back in his hometown. But even if it meant he sat out down the stretch, he was glad to see Bruce deliver and he's learning off such an experienced point guard.
"He's been super good for me, you know, this year," Paul said.
"And it's multiple guys, there's Jack as well and Sunday (Dech) and everyone down the line but I'm fortunate that Brucey can, you know, give me so much tips and tricks along the way."
Sunday also marked a first chance for Paul to play an NBL game in his hometown of Perth and he had plenty of fans inside RAC Arena to cheer him on for the occasion.
He appreciated that support and was especially happy to come away with the win, and to continue to grasp his chance as a starter since the back injury to Jaylin Galloway.
"Yeah, it was exciting, it was my first game back here at RAC, and to get the win was pretty special but to have my family and friends in the crowd and so many people supporting me was very special as well," Paul said.
"I think it's just the next man up mentality as a team too and I've been fortunate enough to get the opportunity to start, and I want to maximise that and go out and help the team win and do what I can."
Another player that stepped up and continued his strong season at both ends of the floor was former Next Star Malique Lewis.
He finished with nine points, six blocks and five rebounds in 34 minutes to continue to put himself in the Defensive Player of the Year discussion even if Forde doesn’t feel he's getting the recognition he should be.
"We've got to keep winning and obviously if he was at a bigger club they'd be parroting on about it, but it just takes one person out of the peanut gallery to say it, and then everyone else starts saying it," Forde said.
"Hopefully that starts to happen and we've had a lot of guys like Malique come through like Bul (Kuol), like Tahj (McCall), and they've always been versatile.
"It's really good when you can have Malique defend a guard, then we tell him to defend (Kristian) Doolittle, and we got him defending (Sam) Froling the other night.
"I love him and he goes about his business, and he's such a pleasure to coach."
Even while getting up 44 three-point attempts in the game and knocking down 20 of them, Cairns were able to win the possession battle with nine offensive rebounds and forcing Perth into 18 turnovers for the game.
That helped the Snakes to play at the pace that Forde wants and to get into their three-point shooting groove. Provided his team is playing the right way like that, he can live with living or dying by whether those good shots are falling or not.
"It's real clear that when we play our way, that's our point of difference and we're real conscious of floor spacing and having guys get their looks," Forde said.
"It's when we're constantly inbounding the ball and constantly if the other team's shooting a foul shot, and we're inbounding the ball, that means we're walking it down and we're not playing to what our strengths are.
"I was happy with the pace because we can't play it any other way, we have to be a team that puts up 44 three-pointers.
"If we play our way and we go 6/44, I don't care. It's when we come out of a loss and we've only put up 27 three-point attempts and shoot at a good clip, I'm not happy with the volume.
"How we need to play factors in a lot of things that we can and can't control, and that's the purpose behind it."