A key figure during the South East Melbourne Magic's successful NBL era, Cairns coach Mike Kelly enjoys a special affinity with basketball in the area.

And while his sole focus on Sunday was to steer the Taipans to a fourth successive victory, taking on the Phoenix in front of a packed house at the State Basketball Centre in Melbourne's east proved to be a great experience for the 52-year-old coach.

"It's amazing - there were a few people who were Magic fans who came up after the game to say hello," Kelly said after Cairns escaped with a 103-102 win to remain on track for a top-four finish.

The California native played for the North East Melbourne Arrows and Nunawading Spectres in the SEABL before joining the Magic for the 1996 season.

Kelly made an immediate impact by claiming Finals MVP honours as South East Melbourne defeated local rivals Melbourne Tigers to win their second NBL title.

The 196cm forward also won two NBL Best Defensive Player awards with the Magic before finishing his playing career with stints at the Victoria Titans, Townsville Crocodiles and Wollongong Hawks.

"The people around here are basketball crazy and I loved it when I was playing SEABL in this area and NBL," Kelly said.

Kelly also made his mark as an assistant coach under Dean Vickerman when Melbourne United won the 2018 championship, before taking on the top job with the Taipans.

After finishing last with six wins in Kelly's debut season, the Taipans have rocketed to third spot on 14 wins, three ahead of fifth-placed Melbourne, behind the strong play of import trio new Scott Machado, Cam Oliver and DJ Newbill.

While Kelly still holds plenty of love for the city of Melbourne, he appears to have found his place in far north Queensland.

"(Melbourne's) just a phenomenal place to come back to but now I love going back to Cairns where we have less traffic lights, less speed cameras, nice weather and my family," he said.

The Taipans can go close to locking in a finals berth by defeating the struggling Illawarra Hawks at home on Friday but a poor recent record against the league's cellar dwellers means Kelly is not getting ahead of himself.

"They've beaten us three times, we have no reason to be complacent," Kelly said.

"We're not in the playoffs yet, we have a great group of guys who are playing good basketball but we can play better and we need to play better."

Australian Associated Press