Adam Forde wants his Cairns Taipans to play on the edge and Saturday night was an example of how that emotion can be harnessed in the right way and maybe some pre-game chaos was just what they needed to loosen up a little.

The Snakes had lost their first three games on the road this season to the Sydney Kings, Adelaide 36ers and New Zealand Breakers by a combined 58 points ahead of taking on Melbourne United at John Cain Arena on Saturday night.

The pressure was mounting for Forde to find some early season answers from his team and they ended up doing that thanks to a 14-0 run either side of three quarter-time leading into a 35-point fourth quarter for the eventual 107-95 win.

It was hardly ideal preparation, though, with the Taipans players and staff caught in traffic on the way to the venue and a lot of the group having to walk to John Cain Arena, and the rest arriving late while dealing with the traffic congestion.

While Forde wouldn’t want that preparation all the time, maybe for this time it was just what they needed to stay loose.

"We've talked about living in the chaos so we've even organised shooting drills with guys shooting all at the same end so there are balls flying everywhere," Forde said.

"It's probably a bigger adjustment for me than anybody else because I need things to happen in stages to tick off one box to move on to the next one, and check things off.

"But this was a case where the guys showed up and there's a clinic going on and the court wasn’t available so we learned that opportunity to do pre-game because half the team's still missing.

"We'd done all our prep and were on court yesterday, and had done a lot of film, and they knew what the scout was so the message was clear and I just said I'd see the guys 90 seconds before jump ball.

"I don’t know if I want to do that every time but it was good living in the chaos, and we did."

While there have been times already this season with the three road losses where the emotions the Taipans play with has worked against them, Forde doesn’t want them to lose that edge.

He saw good signs there too against Melbourne, where things happened that could have made them lose their cool and tip over the edge and lose focus, but this time they harnessed it the right way.

That's why even when they found themselves down 12 in the third quarter, they turned the tide to outscore United 39 points to 14 over the last 12 minutes to improve to a 2-3 record on the season as a result.

"We're that emotional team and we had techs, we had unsportsmanlikes and I don’t want to curb that because that's how we have to play," Forde said.

"We are a high energy team and we've showed more than enough video examples of where things go well and then when things go against us, and how it goes bad.

"We've spent 30 of the last 45 days on the road and that's been by design, and we've got 15 players and 11 new faces so you get a lot of time to spend with each other.

"The coolest thing about being on the road is that conversations are happening now and we had a really good practice yesterday, and the theory is there of what we want to do.

"Now today was an example where we're doing really well, felt like we were hard done by with some calls and I get worked up with it.

"We come into half-time and have a bit of a laugh about, have some banter and it needs to be light with this group.

"This is not a team that will operate through fear and then we find ourselves down 12, the emotions are heightened and this is where you respond.

"We've shown the examples of what happens when it goes that way so this was good that the boys sort of stuck to their guns and we started the fourth quarter with six defensive stops in-a-row which we've done before.

"This we time we capitalised on the offensive ends and it's building blocks."

New Taipans import guard Jaylon Brown might have not been setting the world on fire across his first four games averaging just 11 points on and 3.5 assists on 3/21 three-point shooting.

But coach's faith never wavered in him and that remained the case when he had just six points and two assists on 1/9 shooting to three quarter-time on Saturday night.

But suddenly Brown exploded with 14 of Cairns' 35 points in the fourth quarter to end the night with 20 points with 4/13 shooting but 9/10 at the foul line with four rebounds and four assists.

Forde was anything but surprised with Brown's performance but was happy for him.

"There was no issue of trust and the cool thing was that the shots were good shots to take," Forde said.

"It was probably more important for than Jaylon than anybody else because we back him and I said from the start that we're not changing, you're my guy.

"We're not going to be a team with a point guard dribbling 20 out of 24 seconds and then make a play, I want that ball to zip and fly around. It showed on the box score with four dudes with four assists, that's kinda how we want that ball to zip and Jaylon to be a scoring guard.

"We knew what he was capable of, it's not like he's a rookie out of college, he's got an extensive 10-year career.

"Especially with Brucey out, we needed him and Reyne was really serviceable ball handling as Malique was as well to fill that void in the point guard spot, and then Jaylon just needed to see that first one drop. Then he probably had the eye of the tiger going on in his head, and it was fantastic. It got to the point where he was sizing dudes up and making plays, and that's who he wanted Jaylon to be."

Another new addition to the Taipans for NBL27 is someone who brings enormous college, NBA and NBL experience with him and that's Jonah Bolden.

His NBL26 ended early at the Illawarra Hawks when he ruptured his achilles, but he has been a strong early season contributor with Cairns and now over the opening five matches is averaging 7.0 points and 7.8 rebounds in 20 minutes.

He's shooting the ball well too going 39 per cent from the outside with Forde full of praise for what he's bring all-round for the Taipans.

"Jonah has been the best rebounder for us this season and that's something that he's taken a lot of pride in," Forde said.

"When you wanna do that's hard work, the things that people don't enjoy doing, it's a good sign and then I think he knocked down back-to-back threes, or a third one.

"When he's hitting his shot and rolling to the rim, he just adds to what our dynamic front court is. Then I can move Jack to the three and I've got KG and Jonah or KP in that line-up, and when the ball moves I want guys shooting it.

"There's a method to what we're trying to do and we're in the infancy stage of it, but this game especially was either going to be one we won or lost by 40. It was all to do with the upstairs part and Jonah did a real good job being a stabilising influence for us early on."

Now having played four of their first five games of the season in Sydney, Adelaide, Auckland and Melbourne, and doing lots of pre-season travel, the Snakes return to Cairns to host the Brisbane Bullets on Thursday night.

Next Star Luke Paul should be out there to make his NBL debut as well and Forde is looking forward to it.

"Now we get to go back to Cairns and it feels like an eternity ago we were back there with the warmer weather and less traffic, and can get on court and just reset. We've got to keep preparing and we're stacking days and getting there," Forde said.

"We've got him pencilled in for the 8th and he got on court with us this week, and was really, really good, and it's just a matter of building confidence in the ankle for him.

"So we get home, he's had a bunch of good sessions with contact, and we have two days on court before we'll roll into a home game where if we can get five or eight minutes out of him to build up his level of comfort, that will be very handy."

Chris Pike

Living in the chaos works for Taipans