While the team will take a lot of positives out of last night’s win, Shane Heal knows the real test is yet to come.

“Cairns is a different game and now we’ve got to go away and prepare for them,” Heal said last night.

“We didn’t give a lot of preparation to this game tonight, we’ve been trying to break down what Cairns does and what we have to do to be better next week.”

After blasting the team for its low work rate against Singapore at the weekend, Heal was buoyed by the Dragons’ renewed spirit and the individual performance of Jacob Holmes.

“I thought the spirit was there tonight, everyone had a go,” he said.

“We broke down in certain areas but there were a lot of positives as well.

“The way Jacob Holmes came out and played in the first quarter was fantastic. We executed our offence just how we needed to do it and the play that we ran to get Jacob the first 11 points we haven’t been able to execute all year.

“I don’t know whether that was because the defence was bad or we were exceptionally good at the start of the game, but we’ll take it as a positive and pat him on the back and it was good for him to be able to get 28 points and 14 rebounds against his old side going into the playoffs.”

Heal knows the towering Taipans are a tough challenge at home and will this week focus on shoring up the Dragons’ defence.

“To have five guys over 20 points breeds a little bit of confidence offensively, now we just have to be able to get stops up there against Cairns, who have got some great scorers of their own,” he said.

“This week will be about defence, we’ve got seven days to prepare and we’ve just got to be able to execute.”

“We’re looking forward to the challenge, again it’s going to be a big one for us but I think we go there with no stress, no pressure, it’s all going to be on Cairns,” Heal said.