Defense key to Knights’ 2-0 surge

This Saturday, defending Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA) National Champion Manila will fight for dear life as the San Juan Knights aim to sweep the Northern Conference Finals and advance to the National Finals series.

From last year’s best team but now on the brink of elimination Metrostars can easily trace their woes to the statistics sheet, which indicate the Andok’s-backed Knights total domination of the first two games of the Northern Finals.

Easily one of the best scoring teams in the three-year cagefest with 1999 MVP Alex Compton and ace center Romel Adducul on the firing end, Manila’s offense was effectively shut down by the vaunted San Juan defense the past two games.

The Knights managed to limit the Metrostars point production to an average of 76 points per game, a far cry from their lofty 88.7 average early in the season.

San Juan’s defense, or maybe its determination to finally nail the National crown after an ambitious but failed bid last year, likewise clamped on the Metrostars’ once deadly three-point shooting, limiting them to a paltry 16 percent average, making only five of 30 tries.

And then there is Gilbert Demape’s sudden slump. Once averaging close to 15 points and a lot of backcourt savvy, the Cebuano deadshot has been handcuffed, and overshadowed by a fellow Cebuano, San Juan surprise package Bruce Dacia.

Demape scored only eight points and issued six assists in the last two games, largely due to the stonewall defense put up by the more athletic Dacia, who fired 12 points in San Juan’s two recent victories aside from putting up averages of 4.5 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 2.5 steals and I block.

Adducul, still the undisputed top big man around the league still imposes his presence down low, giving Manila a 55.5 to 51.5 edge in rebounding average, but that’s just about it, as the Knights have beater numbers in almost all aspects of the game.

Coach Philip Cezar’s wards have better numbers in field goal shooting (45.5 percent – 38 percent), steals (15.5-8.5), shot blocks (5.5-2.5) fastbreak points (18.5-6.0) and second chance points (16.0-15.0).

One category where the Knights have a lower average, and which they don’t really mind, is errors, tuming the ball over an average of 18 times, four less than the beleaguered Manila side.

Indeed, so much is stacked up against the Metrostars, but since the MBA’s inaugural season, they have always proven their strong recovery powers and capability to hurdle overwhelming challenges.

The only question this time is whether such powers are potent enough to turn back the fully-armored, charging Knights.