NBL MVP dark horse Matt Hurt piled the pain on the NBL's last-placed Cairns while former Taipan Nathan Sobey finished the job in a crucial 11-point Phoenix win.
The visitors improved to 13-10 to stay fifth thanks to the 113-102 victory in Cairns on Tuesday.
Their effort came the same day star Phoenix import Derrick Walton Jnr was ruled out for the regular season with a hamstring injury suffered in a win over Brisbane on Saturday.
Angus Glover started in the juggernaut's place while Ben Ayre had almost 18 minutes off the bench in a sign of how coach Josh King will look to offset the loss of his star.
Hurt (33 points, 77 per cent field goals) did as he pleased around the rim to become the first Phoenix player to score 30 or more points in back-to-back games.
"He doesn't say anything, just plays ball," King said of Hurt, who had his parents from Minnesota in the crowd as he again pressed his MVP case.
"He's a guy that's not getting enough attention, but that's okay."
Sobey (26 points, seven rebounds) surged in the third quarter when the game was in the balance, getting to the bucket with ease, before icing the win with a dagger three-pointer in the final quarter.
It was his seventh game of 22 or more points in his last nine, impressing on the court where he copped his first NBL taste as a Taipan 11 years ago.
Jordan Hunter (eight points, 18 rebounds) also dominated, his 12 offensive rebounds equalling the modern-day 40 minute record.
"It's a tough situation but we have to still play the games and move on and I'm really proud of the guys who stepped up tonight," King said.
"Now we're being chased; for a long part of the season we've been chasing everybody and that's the new challenge we're facing.
"We had to win that one to keep up with the pace."
The loss was the Taipans' 17th from their last 18 games, Taran Armstrong (20 points, six assists) and Sam Waardenburg (22 points, five assists, five rebounds) helping them to a one-point half-time lead.
All five starting Taipans hit double figures but the 53-35 rebound count was too damaging, coach Adam Forde admitting they were "annihilated" on the glass.
With scouts in the building, Armstrong said he was ignoring chatter around his NBA draft prospects and instead looking for ways to improve the Taipans' 4-18 record.
"I really enjoy playing with this team," he said.
"(Tonight) was competitive, but there wasn't that grit.
"It was just free flowing and we need to sort something out there. It's been the story all year ... we haven't found ways to get stops when we need to."
