The PBA semis

It is some kind of a predictable ending when Golden State takes the floor every playing day.  Playing their kind of outrageously entertaining basketball, manhandling the opposition simply don’t make sense anymore.  I do follow and appreciate their success but I’m not a Warrior fan.

Everyone on weekly contact with my column should know that I had been with the LA Lakers since my high school days.  The team is a study in contrast with GSW.  But not even the destruction from the constant pummelling they get almost on a nightly basis will not make me jump and join the bandwagon.  The chronic failure is almost viral that it also don’t make sense.  Benching young and productive players don’t make sense.  Management don’t make sense, Byron Scott truly and surely don’t make any sense as he’s a detriment to improvement.  The Lakers are so nonsensical today they have become the NBA’s role models for dysfunction.

GSW sits at the top of the NBA while LAL is just a breath away at the bottom.  Noting the extremities from both teams, I find consolation in the on-going PBA semifinals –  Alaska versus GlobalPort, San Miguel versus Rain or Shine in a best-of-seven series.  Winners will be advancing to the PBA Finals.

GlobalPort caught Alaska off guard in their first meeting.  Obviously, it’s the pair of Terrence Romeo and Stanley Pringle doing the heavy damage for Batang Pier but it was the role players who made the scoreboards light up for them.  Billy Mamaril, Doug Kramer and Rico Maierhoffer may not produce the points but their rebounds and defensive plays made things possible for Romeo and Pringle.  They are the ones setting picks and screens to keep both their sights on target.

Alaska made things even the other night after a first quarter mini-riot starring league resident evil Calvin Abueva.  Several Aces came up to play scoring eight points or more.  A series with Abueva as cast member will always be ruggedly interesting.

The San Miguel-Rain or Shine series will also be colorful, not because players from both teams are evenly matched but because one team is coached by someone with an attitude bordering between a cocky brat and a reckless bully.  Being real chummy with the league commissioner is a big bonus that his antics almost don’t deserve a reprimand.   The penalty Yeng Guiao got for intentionally bumping into Chris Ross while about to throw an inbounds pass is outright comical.

With a 20-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter, I surrendered San Miguel to the rolls of the fallen and switched channels. Strange and mysterious things happen in basketball and the Beermen probably also had been practicing in the occult.  I haven’t seen the whole of the last quarter but they did made a furious comeback and won the game.  Junemar Fajardo did another MVP performance backed up by Arwind Santos with his highlight spider dunk. 

Tonight should be a good one.  Coach Yeng and his Elasto Painters will make things rougher and tougher, literally and figuratively, for San Miguel.  Expect the “Extra Rice” tandem of Beau Belga and JR Quinahan to throw their weights around.  If they plan to get even, the collapse from Game 1 will be a lesson painfully learned.

Yeng is a master tactician and part of the tactic is to play mind games.  He’s very good at it and often, his players are pumped with his aggression and instigation.  People sometimes are motivated by provocation and whichever team capitalizes will win the series.