Alive and Ready

The MVP's teaching Sol Train how it's done

The Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters are still in the hunt for the Governor's Cup Finals.

This, after they easily disposed of sister team Meralco Bolts who were already out of Finals contention and looked every bit like a team that didn't deserve to advance to the next round. For all his resurgence and brilliance, Bolts' anchor Asi Taulava finally ran out of gas and couldn't do much to stop the Texters' tall front act of Ranidel de Ocampo and *gasp* Japeth Aguilar.

Playing his stretch four role to the hilt, RDO was making Taulava and whichever Bolts big man assigned to him look like patsies-- drilling in jumper after jumper after jumper. To keep things interesting, RDO also made some nice inside forays just to remind everyone that when he's on his game, he's the best damn power forward in the league today.

As for Aguilar, allow us to keep the praises to just one paragraph as to not ruin it going forward. The athleticism has always been there, it's just that the IQ doesn't seem to be at par with the whole package. Honestly, we can't wait for Norman Black to take over the Texters if only because you just know that he's going to make Aguilar a star, die trying or trade him away.

Though import Paul Harris was once again going through the motions and looking like just another role player on the court, the Texters' won behind a balanced attack that saw PBA Most Valuable Player Kelly Williams accomplish a rare feat-- being the 35th player to tally 2,000 defensive rebounds.

Why that is even being celebrated-- well, I guess some people just have a need to celebrate statistics.

On the Bolts' end, import Mario West did okay but not great. Mac Cardona and Sol Mercado reverted back to their inconsistent ways. With Mercado that was sort of expected, but Cardona's apathetic approach may be a cause for concern for the Bolts' coaching staff. The guy's a fighter and has enough swag to power WWE Chris Jericho's illuminated jacket, but tonight he just looked out of it. Sluggish, uninterested and beat. Ditto with the whole Bolts' franchise.

Another disappointment was guard Chris Ross who scored 0 points and hardly made an impact on the floor. Versus old guard Alapag, you'd expect Ross to rise to the occasion and make a game of it. He didn't, left his D at home and just forgot to play PBA basketball all over again. Paul Artadi was no better, and that pretty much sealed the deal for the Texters' victory.

With three more games this time versus favorites Ginebra, Petron and number one seed Rain or Shine, the Texters need to keep coming up with A+ performances to make it to the Finals. Their chances of making it are higher now that the Bolts are out and even rival Petron which lost to BMeg later in the evening (the Boosters are still in it, but their fate's no longer in their hands).