PBA Finals Game 5: Match point, Chot, RR owns Santos

When the Beermen came alive in Games 2 and 3 to level the series, people started questioning the Tropang Texters-- their head coach, Chot Reyes, in particular. While his SMB counterpart Ato Agustin was receiving praises and pats on the back from peers and pundits for changing his rotation (starting Paul Artadi and Danny Ildefonso over Alex Cabagnot and Dorian Pena), doubts were being cast over the former National Team head coach.

Not anymore.

As if on cue, Reyes changed his starting five before going with a three-guard line-up the rest of the evening. It should be noted that when Reyes inserted Jason Castro, Jimmy Alapag and Ryan Reyes all at the same time instead of for one another, the Beermen quickly found itself trailing by double digits despite its formidable and lengthy wing players.

Alapag played with his usual tenacity, Castro was kept under control  since he was not asked to orchestrate the offense (akin' to a thoroughbred who needs to have the sides of its eyes covered and just do what it does best, move forward and kick ass) and perhaps the biggest key to the game-- Ryan Reyes moving to the small forward position and just man-handling the taller (yet skinnier) Arwind Santos.


While the evening's commentators (Mico Halili and Quinito Henson) were too busy with their side stories, I already saw the match-up and how it would favor TNT. Santos may enjoy a few inches over Reyes, but ever since his Santa Lucia days there wasn't a PG in the league stronger or more tenacious than Reyes in my book (maybe Wyne Arboleda in his prime, but not anymore). Also, much has been said about Santos' lackadaisical play at times (a bad habit he picked up in the pros perhaps?).

The best example of Reyes' ownership of Santos came during a rebound play wherein Reyes had position, but Santos decided that since he was tallker, he'd just jump over the TNT guard-- no biggie right?

Wrong.

Reyes clamped down on the basketball (which Santos was also trying to secure), bent over to get more leverage and swung his entire body-- literally dragging/carrying Santos who ended up on the hardcourt. That my friends, shows you just how much Reyes wants to win this series (for his late younger brother probably).

The adjustment also paid dividends for TNT in other areas: Reyes wouldn't give an inch to Santos even in the post, and Santos' freelancing on defense (as does JWashington) gave Reyes a lot of open looks from deep.

Credit should also be given to TNT head coach Chot Reyes for finally realizing that Ranidel de Ocampo can score on just about anyone, but can't defend anyone at the same time. To me, RDO was the weak link in TNT's starting unit and once he sat on the bench to make way for a Kelly Williams-Ali Peek combo up front, the Beermen couldn't match it since Ildefonso struggles against solid postmen (see his performance against Eric Menk in the Barangay Ginebra series) and Washington was just about kept in check by PBL rival Williams.

On a side note, I enjoyed that "hugging" match between Ali Peek and Dorian Pena. From what I saw, Pena was about to blow a gasket over Jason Castro (probably on a pick and roll play he was trying to defend) and it really did look like he wanted to get a piece of the spitfire TNT guard who blew past him once again (thanks to a screen by Peek). This was then followed by Peek hugging Pena who looked irate and was swinging his arms wildly. There were no exchanges or punches, Peek just kept Pena on lock really. My money's on Peek anyway, the guy's a former amateur boxer and loves UFC. Pena looks more like he loves KFC (but that's just my take on it, I'm skinnier than their arms for Pete's sake!).

We've already seen SMB head coach Ato Agustin mixing up his line-up and resting his starters in long stretches to keep them fresh in the final canto, now we'll see if there's anything else up Agustin's magic bag of rookie coaching tricks.