PBA Finals Game 3: Let's get physical

Why am I not surprised that Game 3 turned out to be a physical encounter between San Miguel and Talk N Text once I read on the dailies that Mark Yee finally got some burn?

From what I've seen, heard and read, SMB was on its way to a blowout win when TNT head coach Chot Reyes tinkered with his rotation and threw in hardly-used players to punk out SMB's stars--namely Jay Washington and Arwind Santos. Did it do enough damage to derail SMB's interchangeable do-it-all forwards? Not really, since TNT was already down big when they started roughing SMB up. Perhaps Coach Chot could try this ploy a bit earlier in Game 4-- Santos and Washington both sounded displeased in the post-game interviews to say the least (or at the very least, affected by the physicality).

So just how did the Beermen beat TNT?

Two things: improved bench play and solid interior defense.

While Alex Cabagnot, Washington and Santos (who was burning the hoops early, shooting long balls without even doing his trademark "follow the ball for a possible rebound" routine) did their usual thing, Sunday Salvacion finally joined the party by hitting timely shots. Joseph Yeo was also given some quality daylight and actually allowed to play his usual, preferred isolation drives to the hoop without having to worry about getting yanked to the bench for freelancing. Dondon Hontiveros made some key baskets, and just about everyone was on attack mode.

In all honesty, I was quite worried for SMB just like the commentators who kept stressing the fact that the Beermen looked like they were forcing themselves to run with TNT early and would eventually tire out in the second half.

Another factor was SMB's improved interior defense. Dorian Pena, Danny Ildefonso and a wing (either Santos, Seigle or Washington) were always quick to help each other out-- almost daring TNT to beat them from the outside (which TNT would normally do to any team, just not last night). To say that the lane was clogged would be an understatement really, and this forced TNT to settle for some ugly bricks-- from Alapag to De Ocampo to Fonacier.

Questions that now come to mind are: have the Beermen finally solved TNT's gameplan? How much did Ryan Reyes' leaving the team to attend his brother's funeral in the US affect TNT's rotation specifially Jason Castro's role (the guy is a blur, but in the 4th he clearly looked winded)? And will we ever see a game wherein Mark Yee plays and is NOT called for a foul?

Definitely won't miss tomorrow's game that's for sure.