Swedish sensation Bobi Klintman was exciting and Patrick Miller showed his cool temperament for the Cairns Taipans to beat the South East Melbourne Phoenix 100-95 at the NBL Blitz on Wednesday.

The Wednesday triple-header at the NBL Blitz on the Gold Coast began with the Phoenix making their last appearance of the week after losing to the Tasmania JackJumpers and beating the Sydney Kings.

The Taipans were playing their second game after a first up loss to the Perth Wildcats, and it turned out to be quite the spectacle. The Snakes led by eight at half-time before the Phoenix turned it on in the third to set up a thrilling finish.

In the end, it was exciting work around the rim from Next Star Klintman and the cool head of Miller that led Cairns to the five-point victory.

Miller ended up top-scoring for the Snakes with 21 points and six rebounds on 7/14 shooting from the floor and 7/9 at the foul line. Klintman added 18 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Miller finds Klintman for the go-ahead dunk ?<br><br>Watch every game live &amp; free via Kayo Freebies ?<br><br>Outside Australia? Watch via ?? <a href="https://t.co/8LoWsbR7E4">https://t.co/8LoWsbR7E4</a> <a href="https://t.co/ZhPKGBvIWL">pic.twitter.com/ZhPKGBvIWL</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1704359419717263388?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Sam Mennenga delivered 11 points, five rebounds, three assists and two blocks, Taran Armstrong 10 points and five assists, and Josh Roberts eight points and three boards.

Mitch Creek was back for South East Melbourne and finished with eight points in 14 minutes while it was point guard Gary Browne who top-scored with 19 points.

Injury replacement big man Tyler Cook again impressed for the Phoenix with 16 points, six rebounds and two blocks with Will Cummings adding 15 points, and Ben Ayre 10 points and five assists against his team from NBL23.

Both teams came out on a mission to score and to be aggressive, and that saw the Phoenix pile on 34 points and the Taipans 30 in the opening period.

The Snakes maintained the rage in the second quarter and it was Next Star Bobi Klintman lighting it up. Cairns added another 30 points to 18 in the second term to go into half-time leading 60-52.

Klintman already had 14 points on the board on 5/6 shooting for the Taipans while his team shot a scorching 72 per cent from the field to go with 4/8 from downtown.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Reuben Te Rangi is doing it all ?<br><br>The Phoenix wing sparked a personal 8-0 run late in the third, helping <a href="https://twitter.com/SEMelbPhoenix?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@SEMelbPhoenix</a> to an 80-77 lead over the <a href="https://twitter.com/CairnsTaipans?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cairnstaipans</a> ?<br><br>Watch every game live &amp; free via Kayo Freebies ? <a href="https://t.co/vhUCipEUZK">pic.twitter.com/vhUCipEUZK</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1704353062930776538?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The Phoenix stayed in touch largely through getting to the foul line 21 times for the half and then South East Melbourne took charge in the third quarter.

By the time Reuben Te Rangi hit consecutive three-pointers heading towards three quarter-time, the Phoenix were leading by six, and another triple from Will Cummings stretched that out to nine.

However, Cairns finished well to close the gap to three by three quarter-time including a thunderous one-handed throwdown from Patrick Miller.

The game was destined to provide the first thrilling finish of the NBL Blitz and it was Miller who knocked down a mid-range pull up jumper to tie scores up with just over a minute to go. Klintman then put the Snakes back in front on the next possession.

Klintman threw down a slam next time down for Cairns to put them back up and ultimately Miller sealed the five-point win for the Snakes at the charity stripe.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Tyler Cook is too strong ?<br><br>Watch every game live &amp; free via Kayo Freebies ?<br><br>Outside Australia? Watch via ?? <a href="https://t.co/8LoWsbR7E4">https://t.co/8LoWsbR7E4</a> <a href="https://t.co/xeKoXct4RR">pic.twitter.com/xeKoXct4RR</a></p>&mdash; NBL (@NBL) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBL/status/1704333671224741935?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

It’s the third and final game at the NBL Blitz on the Gold Coast for the Phoenix who now prepare for their NBL24 season-opener with Melbourne United next Thursday night. The Taipans have one more game to go this week and that’s on Friday evening against the Illawarra Hawks.

HUNGRY JACK'S NBL BLITZ 

CAIRNS TAIPANS 100 (Miller 21, Klintman 18, Mennenga 11)

SOUTH EAST MELBOURNE PHOENIX 95 (Browne 19, Cook 16, Cummings 15) 

BOX SCORE