Llamados come of age, advance to semis

HUGOT? Hinde, BIG TIME
player lang talaga.

What a game.

Marc Pingris on Mac Cardona early. Joe DeVance cutting backdoor for gimmes. Sol Mercado having a Rain or Shine relapse. Earl Barron owning Denzel Bowles. Reynel Hugnatan owning the offensive glass. Jonas Villanueva checks in. Marc Pingris slides back to power forward. No more rebounds for Hugnatan. Bowles mans up versus Barron. Mercado tires out.

Again.

What a game!


The B-Meg Llamados had a plan early, and they followed it to perfection. Pingris, the "Pinoy Sakuragi," was sent by coach Tim Cone to guard the Meralco Bolts' top gun Cardona. It was an uncharacteristic move really for Cone, being a more traditional coach who just days ago didn't even know what to make of Pingris' game.

With Cardona out of sync and forcing up shots reminiscent of last season's Bolts (the one that didn't have any stars to work with), they turned to his buddy Mercado who was ever so happy to oblige. Cutting, darting, drilling in jumpers- for a minute there I honestly thought I was watching a Chicago Bulls' Derrick Rose-era game.

Mercado was so dominant that he was pretty much carrying the Bolts against the Llamados' who started going back to their strength-- having versatile bigs who can play 3-5. DeVance was doing all sorts of things and hurting the Bolts at small forward. Pingris was either playing top notch D or rebounding the basketball. Rafi Reavis came in and blocked/ altered shots. Yancy de Ocampo was there. JC Intal even made some plays.

Once the Llamados' bigs found their mojo, the Mercado, Chris Ross and even Barron were all forced to  take low percentage shots from the outside. Once you ask Mercado (streaky shooter) and Ross (erratic) to take Js rather than drives? That's pretty much it.

Lastly, while everyone talks about Bowles' maturity in the endgame and Pingris' stellar play, the KKS game ball goes to one Jonas Villanueva.

Almost forgotten in Cone's favored Josh Urbiztondo-Mark Barroca pg rotation, Villanueva came in the 4th quarter as a hugot to try and stop Mercado from driving into the lane. He did that (plus Mercado was already breathing through his mouth at the time) AND MORE-- he provided the championship-worthy floor generalship that the Llamados were missing since Roger Yap left for the ABL.

While James Yap was busy disappearing, PJ Simon forcing the issue and Bowles looking for decent passes- Villanueva came in and stabilized the Llamados offense. Slowing it down when they were up, pushing the tempo when they had more guys-- just the little things that elite level IQ point guards do that don't show up in the stat sheets.

All in all, that was an excellent game played 90s basketball style- physical, passionate and all heart.

But I'd be lying if I say that I didn't miss the vuvuzelas. Kaya ata natalo Meralco, nawala ung in-game music nila.