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But make no mistake, it was one debuting Calvin "The Beast" Abueva who stole the show and brought the Alaska Aces back with his hustle and energy to salvage an 88-86 win over the confused Petron Blaze Boosters.
12 points on 5/17 shooting, 16 rebounds (10 defensive/ 6 offensive), 1 block, 1 assist, 4 fouls and 2 turnovers in 27 minutes.
The offense was clearly not there for Abueva-- most of his attempts were forced and he was even blocked twice (one by fellow Kabalen Arwind Santos). His height will be an issue because he plays the forward spot at a measly 6"2 and possesses a shaky jumpshot and an even abysmal three ball. His obvious strengths are at scoring on putbacks and power driving to the hoop (which didn't happen much because of the Aces' poor floor spacing).
You have to love the fact though that when Baguio and Hontiveros are on the floor, Abueva is smart enough to realize the team's pecking order. He just goes to the right side of the paint and waits his turn on offense. When one of those guys are out, that's when he drifts up top either at the left flank of the free throw line to set picks or at the three point arc to ask for isolation drives.
Defensively, Abueva was contagious. He was that much needed shot in the arm for the usually flaccid Aces system. Sonny Thoss was being his usual, robotic self just waiting to be pounded into. Casio was letting guys blow by him. Mac Baracael-- we can't figure out what happened to this guy's game but he's not as much of a lockdown defender as he was back with SMART Gilas. Oh, and captain Tony de la Cruz is old.
So enter Abueva. He didn't quite put the cuffs on Santos (11 points) or Jay Washington (15), but he did battle in the blocks considering he's 2 inches shorter than Santos and 5 against Washington.
Walang takot makipagpalitan ng mukha, walang takot matamaan.
Pulling down 16 rebounds in 27 minutes-- versus the most star-studded frontline any PBA team could offer in Santos, Washington, Danny Ildefonso and Dorian Pena, that's just a testament to Abueva's tenacity for the basketball. Some guys have it (Abueva), some guys don't (Rabeh Al Hussaini).
If anything, this game proves that Abueva is a gamer. Coach Luigi Trillo will have to do a lot of studying and adjusting to truly make the most of his promising rookie's talents to help the Aces' cause moving forward. This writer argues that Abueva would greatly benefit coming off the bench and playing the small forward position (by title) but sliding over to the paint while Baracael pops out.
Baguio has always been an efficient scorer .... the occasional games when he doesn't score much, would most likely mean that he didn't shoot the ball as much.
ReplyDeleteHe's one of the best passing SG's in the game ..... also (along with TnT's Ryan Reyes) has one of the most disruptive set of hands on the defensive end.
If the guy had a more 'vocal' personality on the court, he'd easily be better than J.Yap - which should be blasphemy to the majority of the PBA's fanbase (ladies, feeling-ladies, fantards, etc).