Ginebra Escapes Smart Gilas; Bad Habits Beginning to Form

Since this entry comes at the heels of last night's replay on BTV (I wanted to actually watch the game first instead of reading/ researching about it, watching clips on YouTube and writing my piece-- hey, some of us have to work for a living so I can't watch games live), kindly disregard its "lateness."

Pretty sure that other bloggers have now written their comments on what Ginebra did right, such as zeroing in on shooters by not leaving them at all times and trusting their bigs-- who played with much grit to take care of the paint.


It should be noted however, that Eric Menk didn't play much (which could've added a post-up presence to the Gin Kings' attack) and that most of import Nate Brumfield's 31 points (negating counterpart Marcus Douthit's cool 31) came via barrelling into the paint wherein no one on the Smart Gilas could counter his combination of speed and size (no matter how tall you are, a burly 6"4 man will always displace a 6"11 finesse guy).

So here's what went wrong for Smart Gilas (who had a chance to win the game but lost on hustle points and couldn't grab offensive rebounds when it mattered):

Over reliance on Marcus Douthit in the paint
when will Rajko Toroman trust young bigs Greg Slaughter and well, Slaughter? He played when Douthit was hit with early foul trouble yes, but not enough. In the bigger scheme of things, it doesn't matter if Toroman is trying to win the series and maybe the Commissioner's Cup, this is the time wherein he can "teach" Slaughter on the fly against rough competition so that the kid will be ready come FIBA.

Not enough dribble drives for Mac Barroca
if you told me that Mike Cortez could stay in front of Barroca in a five game series, I'd slap the white off your eyeballs. Maybe in 2003. Not in 2011. To give Ginebra credit, they packed the paint enough to force SG to shoot from deep, but then SG never went back to Barroca and fell in love with 3s).

Lassiter, Lutz non-issues
Once Ginebra's guards were asked to stay in on their assignments rather than gambling for steals (that's you Ronald Tubid, Mark Caguoia), the hot shooting Fil-foreign wings were pretty much deemed useless on the floor, further exposing SG's guard weakness (no shot creator other than Barroca who will definitely be outsized in FIBA competition-- thank heavens they're getting Jimmy Alapag *who should wear PILIPINAS on his chest until he says NO* and even Dondon Hontiveros)

Gin Kings' lockdown on Jayvee Casio, Chris Tiu
Mark Caguioa was determined that the second coming of James Yap wouldn't get the shots that he wanted. Mike Cortez was competing as though he was still leading DLSU to another title (before the game-fixing/selling allegations) and had a young L.A. Tenorio in front of him. Hell, even back-up guards like Rob Labagala (who I think is a pretty odd pick for Jong Uichico, who could've easily taken, say, Froilan Baguion or Rudy Lingganay from the ABL) and John Wilson were bent on not giving SG's DLSU-ADMU connection any amount of daylight.

Lack of an enforcer/ rebounder
On one end, Ginebra sent in Rudy Hatfield, Yancy de Ocampo (who I haven't seen in a while but looks like he added some muscle on those arms), Billy Mamaril (who I don't really know why, up to this day, is being used sparingly-- the last time he played heavy minutes well, was with Coca Cola and Shell) and even Willy Wilson. SG? Not one soul. Aldrech Ramos is skinny and was rightfully asigned to the bench (you don't want your most promising guy outside of Mac Baracael battered and bruised right away, maybe in a year or two once he adds on considerable "man weight"), and Japeth Aguilar is...

Japeth Aguilar started at power forward
The powerless 6"9 prospect settled for THREE BALLS, camped OUTSIDE the THREE POINT LINE and basically bit on every single pump fake thrown his way by guys at least FIVE INCHES SHORTER than him. The first rule for bigs that I learned early (being a skinny 6"0 wing asked to play center by shorter friends who I won't name lol ) is that if you're taller than the guy attacking you, then you simply wait for the shot to go up and block it. No need to waste energy trying to jump at everything that comes your way. Aguilar was exposed by Beau Belga years ago-- that was acceptable. But after two/ three years? This is just disheartening. Aguilar will probably be a big PBA star soon owing to his height and athleticism, his dunks will get the fans' approval-- but at the end of the day, he's more like KG Canaleta when he first entered the league (flashy, superstar wing wannabe who had all the flash, but no substance-- thank God Canaleta decided to work on his shot from deep and is now carving a niche as a suitable back up to James Yap and PJ Simon).

Hopefully, Coach Rajko Toroman has a new gameplan for later and that Douthit can get some help from his teammates.

P.S.

I love the physicality and of how Ginebra is considered the "underdogs" in this series.