Did San Miguel Beer and Meralco Bolts pull a sagip kapamilya (save your family member) act in Game 1 against Barangay Ginebra and TNT Tropang 5G, respectively?
No and yes. Methinks it’s no for the former and yes for the latter.
In the first game of the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals last Sunday, the Bolts started strong, building a commanding 21-point lead in the first half—52-31 at one point—before settling for a still-impressive 62-46 halftime edge.
However, TNT rallied like gangbusters in the second half, especially in the third quarter, where it dominated with a 28-13 run to slash the deficit to just a single point. The game remained close in the fourth and final canto before TNT seized control in the dying seconds, led by Calvin Oftana’s clutch performance for a 100-95 win.
What was questionable on the part of Bolts head coach Luigi Trillo (or was it active consultant Nenad Vučinić?) was the lack of ceiling in the final seconds of a tight ballgame. That was when the 6-foot-5 Oftana and 6-foot-7 Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser went to town against Meralco’s lilliputian frontline led by 6-foot-4 Cliff Hodge.
Where were Raymond Almazan and Brandon Bates—both 6-foot-9—in the most crucial moments of Game 1?
The zebra stripes may also have had a hand in the MVP Group’s premier team pulling off the win, as the referees awarded TNT a whopping 47 free throws compared to just 19 for Meralco.
So despite being trolled on social media, Jansen Rios was not to blame for Meralco’s Game 1 loss.
As for adjustments in Game 2 tonight, Trillo (or is it really Vučinić?) should simply hope to recreate the Bolts’ crisp execution from the first half of Game 1. Then hope—and pray—that they remember to deploy their bigs at crunch time to prevent Oftana, Ganuelas-Rosser, and Kelly Williams from going amok.
And if they ever find themselves down 4 points with less than 5 seconds left on the clock, tell Rios to pass the darn ball to Chris Newsome, who is your franchise player and, in addition, usually clutch.
In the second semifinal game last Sunday, 30-time PBA champion San Miguel Beer didn’t need any saving from little brother Ginebra San Miguel, or Barangay Ginebra as they are more commonly known these days.
Ginebra once again tapped into its tried-and-tested never-say-die spirit to eke out a 99-90 victory over the top-seeded Beermen in Game 1.
This time, head coach Tim Cone took a page out of “Living Legend” Robert Jaworski’s playbook, unleashing his shock troopers to pull off the win.
While RJ Abarrientos came off the bench to lead the Gin Kings in scoring with 23 points, it was the likes of Ralph Cu, Jayson David, and Norbert Torres who surprised the Beermen the most.
Cu drilled clutch 3-pointer after 3-pointer during Ginebra’s third-quarter uprising, while former Ginebra 3×3 teammate David sliced and diced through SMB’s vice-like defense for runners and acrobatic layups. Cu finished with an electrifying 13 points, while David cobbled together 10 markers.
Torres, meanwhile, sacrificed his body against nine-time MVP Junemar Fajardo, especially when Japeth Aguilar appeared out of sorts in trying to stop his good friend. The 6-foot-6 former La Salle big man also knocked down a couple of 3-pointers to pull Fajardo away from the shaded lane and wound up with 8 points.
Lest we forget, Scottie Thompson’s steady leadership was a major factor in the win, as he has fully taken the mantle from the now-departed LA Tenorio as the Gin Kings’ floor general. It also helped that he finished with 22 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists.
For the crowd favorites to build on their Game 1 momentum, Ginebra must hope for sustained bench production and continue to let Fajardo eat—he posted a monstrous 27-point, 23-rebound performance in the opener—while putting the handcuffs on the rest of his teammates.
The Gin Kings should also look to revitalize their frontcourt of Aguilar and Troy Rosario, as it was offensively that they didn’t provide much against the less-stellar SMB big men (outside of Fajardo).
The Beermen won’t shoot 48% from the free-throw line again in Game 2 (15 of 31 attempts), so Ginebra must find a way to outscore SMB somewhere—and that somewhere has to be Aguilar and Rosario.
Source: Sagip kapamilya—again?
