SMB vows comeback for ABL title

JAKARTA – The San Miguel Beermen had been in this situation before in the third  AirAsia ASEAN Basketball League playoffs: Up 1-0, gunning for the close-out on the road but losing badly.

That was against the Malaysia Dragons who forced them into a deciding Game 3 of their previous semifinal series via a 100-77 Game 2 rout. Now, SMB coach Bobby Parks hopes that as in that semis, their 61-81 beat-up at the hands of stubborn finals rival Indonesia Warriors would fire up his wards again as they go for the crown anew in a rubbermatch over in the Philippines Saturday.

“The thing is, it was almost like the Malaysia situation (semis),” Parks said following the numbing setback, which he noted, was hastened by their  failure to both execute their plays and match the Warriors’ sense of urgency.

“When we went to Malaysia for Game 2 (of the semis), we didn’t execute our gameplan; they took our imports  out  of their game. When we returned to Manila, everybody was very focused and had that sense of urgency preparing for Game 3 (that time),” he added.

Of course, they won that series at 2-1, finishing the Dragons off via a vengeful 90-56 rout to advance to the finals, where they eventually drew first blood against the Warriors, 86-83, at  home. 

Last Saturday at Mahaka Square’s Britama Arena, the Beermen found the hoops as tough to navigate as the dreaded Jakarta traffic, making only 24 of their 61 tries, including a woeful 6-of-16 from rainbow country, as they trailed by as many as 21 points. 

Duke Crews and Nick Fazekas were held to a combined 26 points and nine boards, the same scoring output of Indonesia’s Evan Brock, who had more rebounds than the duo (16). The Beermen were badly outrebounded, 37-21, resulting in 13 second-chance points for the Warriors against their four, and had four less assists than the hosts’ 14.

Parks believes something positive will come out from this loss.

“Sometimes when you lose by three, it’s not a wakeup call to the players, who might think that  ‘oh, that was close and we could have still won.’ But when you get drubbed like this, 20 points, now there’s the tendency for pride to come into play and you have to bounce back because they really beat us, we were out of the game totally,” he said.

Game 2 showed how much the Warriors needed the victory more.

“It was a clear case of them (Warriors) coming out, playing with a sense of urgency. They played well and got their inside game going and when they kicked out, their shooters made their shots. As for us, we came out going one-on-one, not running our plays, not sticking to the gameplan and we played into our weaknesses instead of playing into our strengths,” Parks said.

But his faith in his wards’ ability to win it all did not waver.

“I got confidence in my guys. But of course, we’re gonna have to make some adjustments and like I said, the most important thing for us is execute, following the game plan because in Game 2, we didn’t follow the game plan,” he said.

The Beermen will take a red-eye flight back to Manila early Monday, setting what Parks described as “a hard week of practice” in preparation for Game 3.