Last-placed Cairns have put a severe dent in the Brisbane Bullets' fading NBL finals aspirations with a comprehensive 111-80 victory.
The Taipans dominated the first half 62-45 at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Friday night before finishing with an authoritative 29-15 final term.
Rob Edwards hit 7-of-11 three-pointers in a 35-point haul, including 22 in the first half, aided by guard Taran Armstrong (19 points) and centre Tanner Groves (17).
"Sometimes we treat defence like a well-organised pick-up game," Cairns coach Adam Forde said.
"You can manage and navigate that, and the boys responded.
"Obviously we're not playing for a play-in position, but we are playing for pride."
Bullets import Casey Prather gave his already injury-ravaged team a scare when he came off in the first term favouring his right knee, before returning to post 22 points and nine rebounds, while Josh Bannan had 16 points and 12 boards.
The heavy defeat was eighth-ranked Brisbane's third straight in six days, by a combined 76 points.
"I've felt a couple of times in these last few games it's physically gotten that hard," Bullets coach Justin Schueller said.
"That's the challenge I've got right now: how do we turn this around quickly?"
Cairns jumped ahead 14-5 before Prather single-handedly carried the hosts to within two.
Armstrong's stepback trey on the quarter-time buzzer gave the Snakes a 31-24 buffer.
The wheels looked like falling off for the Bullets when import Josh Adams' unsportsmanlike foul effectively conceded six straight Cairns points, through Pedro Bradshaw's three-point play from the contact and Groves' triple from the subsequent possession.
Edwards was red-hot with 13 points in the opening term and added another nine in the second, including a three-pointer - his sixth from seven attempts - on the half-time horn to extend Cairns' cushion to 17 points.
The Taipans hit 21-of-33 in the opening half, including 10-of-14 from beyond the arc, scoring at will against the Bullets' non-existent defence.
Brisbane gave a better account of themselves in a 20-all third quarter as the Taipans' hot-shooting cooled before the visitors finished with a bang, with Kyrin Galloway's thunderous dunk inside the last minute followed by a three and a slam from Edwards.
