A pair of Martin Cattalini three-pointers in the closing seconds guided Cairns to an 87-85 NBL home win over Gold Coast.

Poor offensive work meant eighth-placed Gold Coast made a sluggish start until a Jason Crowe three-pointer on the first quarter buzzer locked the scores at 22-all.

While the match signalled the return of the Taipans star-studded squad of Stephen Black, Darnell Mee and Cattalini, they struggled in their offence early on giving the Blaze the opportunity to run away with things in the second quarter.

Daniel Joyce would go on to push the visitors to a 50-49 lead at halftime.

The Blaze would continue to put points on the board with big scorers Crowe and Pero Cameron leading the way.

With things looking grim for the home side, a three-pointer by Cattalini signalled a reverse in the game and he followed it up with another with only four seconds left on the clock to seal the match.

Taipans coach Alan Black said he was thrilled with the result.

"The thing that hurt us was offence but that was just terrific tonight," he said.

The Taipans now join the Blaze on 14-12 and Cairns now face three matches back to back on the road.

They will face the South Dragons on Wednesday while the Blaze go on to play Adelaide on Sunday.

Blaze coach Brendan Joyce said the game had slipped away from them.

"We deserved to win," he said.

"But we didn't execute what we needed to execute and we didn't do what we had planned."

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