Ginebra wills itself to victory over Smart Gilas, reaches Finals

What a fitting end to what I believe is one of the more competitive matches we've seen this conference, nay, this season. Ginebra and Smart Gilas, battling each other on Easter Sunday with the Gin Kings enjoying a 2-1 lead but finding itself down by as much as 15 points in the early part of the game, tied at 65 after a furious rally and stand by the Gin Kings' second unit and Mark Caguioa.

A Man's Game

Two games in, and Ginebra is now just a victory away from turning what was once thought as a "passing of the torch" to promising Smart Gilas Pilipinas into a mismatch of manly proportions- figuratively and literally.

In the first game, Ginebra barely won all thanks to somewhat uncharacteristic botched free throws careof the boys in blue. In Game 2, despite the box score's 110-103 line, Ginebra showed just why the PBA is "where the best come to play."

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.

The Final Four

Now that the dust is starting to settle and we're moving on to the final stages of the Commissioner's Cup, fans have been gifted with box-office worthy, best-of-five match-ups, in Talk N Text-Air21 and Ginebra-Smart Gilas.

In the TNT-Air21 series, you'll have the Philippine Cup champions doing battle with a rejuvenated and driven Air21 squad led by who I believe is the best, scoring import of the lot and some grade A championship-caliber players. With Ginebra-SG, you'll have the crowd darlings going up against a young team that is slowly trying to build its own identity and is also winning over fans left and right with its style of play (which should be the case since they are the national team).

That being said (and since I'm on paid vacation leave), here's how I see the match-ups are going to play:

Thoughts on today's Game Twos

Air21 defeats Alaska (series tied 1-1)

With their backs on the wall and facing elimination, Air21 turned to their Lebanese import Alpha Bangura-- an old school, high scoring, take no prisoners reinforcement that is arguably the best of the remaining lot, to lead them to victory. And boy, did he ever deliver in the Express' 94-84 victory this afternoon.

How to fix the Beermen (theoretically)

Now that they have been eliminated from the on going Commissioner's Cup, head coach Ato Agustin and the rest of the San Miguel Beermen (I can't remember the last time this team was eliminated this early) have all of the off-season to make their new, young acquisitions work in time for next conference.

Granted, they traded away four aging players-- two being quite serviceable (Dorian Pena and Dondon Hontiveros), for three young upstarts-- with only one being worthy the marquee (Rabeh Al Hussaini). But just when you thought that things would be okay owing to the Beermen's loaded roster, guys who should've stepped up didn't, and the team looked pretty lost as to what style they should play. Are they a half court team anchored on veteran Danny Ildefonso and the more stable Denok Miranda or are they a run and gun team led by Jay Washington and Alex Cabagnot?