Talk of West Sydney signing sweet shooting guard John Rillie to its ranks should send a shudder down the spines of its national basketball league rivals judging by its 116-105 demolition of the Cairns Taipans.

While the Pigs are considering sending out an SOS to Rillie after the Boomers guard was cut by Greek club AEK Athens this week, West Sydney showed it was already rich in backcourt talent as it ensured a miserable end to a horror week for Cairns.

The loss of both Boomers forward Simon Dwight (knee) and starting centre Russell Hinder (knee) for 12 weeks reportedly had the Pigs interested in bringing back Rillie, who left for a lucrative European contract after guiding West Sydney to last season's grand final series.

But on Saturday night's performance, West Sydney shouldn't be worried about holes in their player roster after an effort that impressed across the board.

Inspirational skipper Derek Rucker was again the little general, grabbing 25 points while backcourt backup came in ample servings through ex-Taipan Aaron Trahair who came off the bench to grab 23 points.

The big man problem posed by the loss of Hinder and Dwight was solved by bench forward Bruce Bolden (18 points, five rebounds), Sam Mackinnon (15 points, eight rebounds) and centre David Hinton (11 points).

It was a confidence boosting victory for the Pigs who had not won without Dwight before - a stretch of six games.

West Sydney moved to a 6-5 record to stay in the top six while Cairns was relegated to 5-8.

Not even the man considered the NBL's best import, two time Adelaide championship guard Darnell Mee (eight points, 2-7 shooting from the field) could stop the Pigs although Anthony Stewart (23 points), Brad Davidson (21 points) and Jayson Wells (20 points, 10 rebounds) tried hard.

The defeat capped off a week to forget for the Taipans who lost last Wednesday night to Brisbane - the Bullets' first win of the season - and succumbed to the Hawks 94-84 in Wollongong on Friday night.

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