SICKENED by San Miguel Beer’s two straight defeats, coach Ato Agustin tugged at his charges’ pride yesterday, saying the Beermen need a gut check to snap out of their rut against Talk N Text in their PBA Philippine Cup championship series.
"Kulang sa pride, puso," Agustin declared after the Beermen absorbed a 102-110 loss last Wednesday sank into an ominous 0-2 hole in the best-of-seven duel.
While the Tropang Texters are forcefully sending a message to a non-existent rival, the Beermen have repeatedly wilted, leaving Agustin saying: "It’s (about) how you play the game. You need to play hard, especially in this series, finals. This is a big opportunity, nandito ka sa finals."
Forward Jay Washington wholeheartedly agreed with his coach. "It’s got to be the guys’ pride…. There’s got to be more effort," he stated.
The two teams clash anew in Game 3 today at the Araneta Coliseum, with TNT, which has never taken a 2-0 lead in 12 previous race-to-four battles, bidding to push SMB into a 0-3 hole from which no team has ever recovered in PBA history.
Even a 0-2 deficit is daunting enough since teams that have taken such a lead went on to win the series 31 out of 37 times in the past and the Beermen need no such trivia to add clutter to their already befuddled, collective senses.
Aware of his history, Agustin put up a brave front, maintaining anything can still happen. "Hindi pa naman tapos ‘yan. They need four wins. May chance pa naman kami. But we have to bounce back," he said.
"Crucial ang Game 3 kasi kapag natalo kami doon 3-0 na, mahirap na talagang makabalik. Pero itong 2-0 okay pa kami. Kailangan lang naming mag-regroup."
Texters coach Chot Reyes refused to make any predictions, merely pointing out his team must wage battle without Ryan Reyes, who immediately rushed to the airport after Game 2 to catch a flight to California for the interment of his brother, who died in a car accident just prior to the finals.
"We’re still a long ways off. Our only focus now is Game 3," said Reyes. "We have to figure out a way to have everybody fill in the void that Ryan is going to leave behind. It’s far from over."
Tropang Texters skipper Jimmy Alapag put it another way, saying: "If it was a best-of-three I’d probably be hugging everybody in the room right now. But it’s a best-of-seven. We’re going to watch the tape and see where else we can get better."
That should be of additional concern for SMB. In its 91-82 Game 1 win, TNT had 19 fastbreak points. Last Wednesday, they only had four fastbreak points but still won, a fact that amazed even Reyes.
"We only had four fastbreak points?" he blurted out, adding: "They did a great job coming down on the fastbreak. But we still scored 110 points. I have to watch it again to figure out how that happened with only four fastbreak points."
Here’s a clue: The Texters showed they could play the halfcourt, too, and with the same bursts of speed and quickness that often caught their rivals flat-footed or head on their heels.
Jared Dillinger missed only one of his 10 field goal attempts to finish with 20 points while Castro and Alapag led five others in double figures with 15 each and the Texters made 39 of 81 shots. They also had more lay-ups or tip-ins 24-16 and points in the paint 48-40.
"We’re just an attacking team. I told them before the game, ‘you can’t close your ears to the sound of thunder and you can’t shut your eyes to the sight of lightning.’ They’re both very rapid, so that’s our mindset. We just want to come and come and come, keep coming and attacking," said Reyes.
That came to the fore when SMB clawed back from two 13-point deficits to threaten at 100-103 with 1:22 to go. Then the Beermen started to unravel, giving the Castro-led Texters juggernaut the cue to unleash a 7-2 windup for the win.
Agustin maintained things would have gone differently had his charges remained glued to what were drilled into them.
Noli Cortez, Business Insight Malaya
