Cairns coach Adam Forde is adamant his team's disastrous round-one fadeout is a quick fix, and he doesn't want his players to get disheartened or listen to the haters.
The Taipans trailed Illawarra by just two points early in the third quarter of Saturday night's HoopsFest clash in Perth.
But Cairns were blown away from that point on, with the Hawks going on a 41-13 run on the way to securing a thumping 102-75 victory in front of 2878 fans at HBF Stadium.
Taipans imports Pedro Bradshaw and Rob Edwards went a combined 6-of-28 from the field in a disappointing debut for the club.
Although Edwards nailed four of his seven three-point shots, he missed all eight of his two-point attempts.
Fellow import Tanner Groves fared much better with 19 points on 9-of-15 shooting.
Forde lamented his team's 53-37 loss in the rebound count, including 17-11 on offensive rebounds, as well as some questionable shot selection at times.
But he also saw plenty of positives.
"The only concern I have is I don't want the guys to be disheartened by it," Forde said.
"These are things that are fixable.
"When we talk about the offensive shot selection, when we talk about the effort and rebounds and defence, you know, they're fixable things. So we had some good offensive clips that didn't result in the shot going in.
"It's good to have these problems at this stage of the season, because we're trying to be that final product in December, January, not right now."
Cairns entered the season as favourites to win the wooden spoon.
Their worrying fadeout against Illawarra will further fuel talk of the uphill battle Cairns face this year.
Forde wants his players to block out the external noise - no matter if it's good or bad.
"People like to say we try and weaponise it (the negative talk). The reality is we don't, because some of it is just click bait to be honest," Forde said.
"The one thing I've sort of said with the guys is what's really important as the season progresses when individuals start to get good and recognised for particular awards - or we start to get good - you don't want to buy into all the positive stuff as well.
"Because it's the same people that are dogging you at the start of the season (and are) now suddenly jumping on your bandwagon afterwards.
"So the message has to remain constant in our gym and in our training, and the guys are really good with that.
"I can't credit the boys enough with the effort and the care that they have in this group, in this team, in this franchise.
"We've just got to keep working towards being better as a unit."
Cairns will be back in action next Saturday when they host Adelaide in round two.
