What’s the difference between San Miguel and Ginebra? San Miguel has three guys who can score 25 points in a game: Jay Washington, Dondon Hontiveros and Arwind Santos. Ginebra has Willie Miller, maybe Ronald Tubid on a hot-streak and certainly Mark Caguioa will try. But while San Miguel’s elite scorers will make it look easy (Washington as foremost case), Ginebra’s scorers will make it seem tougher than a root canal. Caguioa, often indignant and insistent on the court, is the best example. In a must-win game last January 9, Caguioa finished with 17 points. It was his best shooting clip of the season (64% FG). He didn’t take 30-footers. He took it inside, up against San Miguel’s interior defense. He also did it from the start. He said he asked Coach Jong Uichico to place him in the starting line-up for the first time in the playoffs. It paid off.
Caguioa’s stat-line in the first quarter: 9 points on 4 out of 4 shooting, 1 out of 1 from the line, game-high 5 rebounds, 1 assist, zero turnovers in 11 out of 12 minutes.
That’s not just setting the tone. That’s setting the bar.
Caguioa, predictably, is a proud man. Most ultra-competitive athletes are. Don’t dare tell him he’s clearly lost a step. Don’t even suggest that his caliber has dipped. He is Mark Anthony Caguioa. After nine grueling years of scoring three-point plays against the best defenders, overcoming injuries, hurdling disappointments, he remains convinced. More convinced than anyone else. Perhaps more convinced than ever before. He is not some new, toned-down version of Caguioa. He knows he is still Caguioa; the man opponents fear the most.
Yet Caguioa seems to do it differently these days. His one-on-one move in 2011 is no longer about the ruthless first step. His split-second chicanery can leave a defender standing still for hours. But facing today’s stoppers, he is more problem-solver than automatic shaker-and-baker. He pauses. He contemplates. Jab step. Ball-fake. Pivot. Do I fade away? Do I go up and under? When he scores nowadays, it’s a product of both muscle-memory and the ability to solve a Sudoku puzzle under duress.
Or if Caguioa’s not busy cracking riddles, if only to show how impact is not only defined by points scored, he’s preoccupied grabbing rebounds. But he doesn’t scoop them out of the stratosphere the way Arwind Santos does. Caguioa doesn’t levitate. He summons the ball. With authority. With a deep sense of ownership. How else can I explain his kalawit-style rebound in the second half of Game 3 (one of his game-high and season-best 12 rebounds)? It is ours. It is mine.
Doubters can rest for now. Ginebra is back in the series. Caguioa is back in furious mode. So furious in fact, he even sparred with teammate Rudy Hatfield during a timeout (reportedly hurling f-bombs at the H-Bomb). It’s Caguioa at his temperamental worst. 17 points and 12 rebounds in a must-win game? It’s also Caguioa at his tempestuous best.
Mico Halili, GMA News TV
