Malique Lewis isn’t too concerned over facing the South East Melbourne Phoenix for the first time but is embracing the greater responsibility he has on this Cairns Taipans team and has been instrumental in their three-game NBL winning streak.

Lewis has spent the past two seasons in the NBL but that was as a Next Star chasing his NBA dream. Now as he prepares to face the Phoenix for the first time, all he's worried about is doing the right things to help the Taipans keep on winning.

That's been working too with the Snakes having now won three straight since a horror loss in New Zealand with Lewis playing a key role in that at both ends of the floor in the wins over Melbourne United, Brisbane Bullets and Illawarra Hawks.

Lewis has been taking on the biggest defensive jobs all season at the Taipans and making an impact offensively including hitting the match-sealing three-pointer on Sunday against the Hawks with just over 30 seconds to go.

Having had two seasons as a Next Star before being picked at No. 60 in this year's NBA Draft by the Washington Wizards, Lewis is happy to embrace the extra responsibility to now come and play in the NBL as an import.

"I feel like from the jump knowing that I was gonna come here as an import that everything was going to change," Lewis said.

"Coach (Adam Forde) has put a lot more responsibility on me and it just gives me confidence to come in and make mistakes, and get better.

"I feel comfortable out there, I'm in spots to excel and to show that I can do these things so I'm in a good spot."

As an import and no longer a Next Star, Lewis isn’t feeling extra pressure to perform at the Taipans, rather he is happy to have that added responsibility and the greatest pressure he feels comes from the expectations he has on himself.

"The pressure comes from what I put on myself but the motivation comes from everything else," Lewis said.

"I want to be out there and be perfect, but I know that's not going to happen and I just have goals that I set for myself that I put pressure myself on achieving."

Now that Lewis is finding his feet in his role as a defensive stopper, strong rebounder and another offensive weapon on a team with plenty of threats led by Jack McVeigh, Keanu Pinder, Reyne Smith, Jaylon Brown and Jonah Bolden, this Saturday night will be a big occasion for him.

He might be playing it down, but Lewis will be playing against South East Melbourne for the first time. While he has already played back at John Cain Arena this season in Cairns' win over Melbourne United, it'll be different facing the Phoenix.

"I don't know, I'm neutral about it, and for me it's going to be like a pick up and I'm just trying to win," Lewis said.

"I've been back already and we were there last week at John Cain so it's nothing new.

"I guess being on the opposite bench will be weird but yeah, I don’t know what to expect and I'm just going to go out there to do my best, and try to help my team win."

Following the 23-point loss that Cairns suffered in New Zealand back at the start of Round 3, they were then 1-3 at that point and had just lost three road games by a total of 58 points.

Coach Adam Forde admitted after that game that the Snakes were in a bad spot, but they pulled together as a group and the response has been tremendous with the wins against Melbourne, Brisbane and Illawarra.

They're now all of a sudden in a good spot at 4-3 and with Jaylin Galloway still to come into the team and for Lewis, he thought it was all about each player taking greater responsibility to do what's expected of them.

"It's just been about doing your job and for me out there that's putting pressure on their scorers, making open shots and putting pressure on the rim also," Lewis said.

"I feel like I wasn’t doing that before and I'm just coming out there to be a lot more aggressive. And everyone has just started doing their job.

"At first we weren’t playing like ourselves and weren’t playing how coach built this scheme of this team to play but now we're doing it."

Chris Pike

Malique neutral on first clash with Phoenix