Joe-Ping come up big for Mixers

Pingris: Laban!

The San Mig Coffee Mixers live to fight another day as they triumphed over the Rain or Shine Elastopainters in last night's grind-it-out slugfest known as Game 5 of the PBA Philippine Cup Semifinals.

Led by a defiant Marc Pingris who started at center once again (a ploy used by Coach Tim Cone to erase the Elastopainters' pick-and-roll advantage), the Mixers came out swinging. Not with jabs, but with haymakers all designed to force the action inside. On the flipside, the Elastopainters were settling for one too many long balls as the Mixers did a yeoman's job in clogging up the paint. It also didn't help the Elastopainters' cause that they opted to go for a more perimeter-oriented starting five (Chris Tiu, Jeffrei Chan, Gabe Norwood, Larry Rodriguez and Beau Belga) and took too long to adjust.

Despite the Mixers' efforts though, they weren't really up big or blowing the Elastopainters out of the water. The game plan was to clearly pound the air out of the basketball by going inside with Pingris and Joe DeVance (who seems to be unstoppable for the Mixers the whole series) and limit the number of possessions (making for a really ugly basketball game). By going inside, long rebounds that often result from treys and jumpers were limited and that kept the Elastopainters "grounded" or prevented them from breaking out into the open court. Credit to Coach Cone (who we still believe has gone "Hollywood") for the major adjustments both on offense and defense.

And in a twisted reversal of fortune, James Yap-- whom Coach Cone asked that the PBA "protect," had a horrendous, foul-plagued night on an assortment of gimmes. The two offensive fouls were justified (Jireh Ibanes owns Yap), but the three others could've gone either way. It's almost like the refs went on record to say "hey, we're protecting your guy by keeping him off the floor. Di ba yun gusto mo?"

Seriously though, you have to commend the Mixers for their efforts. Jonas Villanueva was also "unearthed" early by Coach Cone, proving that yes-- he is the point guard that they need to set things up. Specially if they want to play in the half court. Having Villanueva on the floor and pairing him with Barroca was a breath of fresh air for the Mixers because it allowed Barroca to play off the basketball and go on "attack mode" while Villanueva kept feeding his bigs Pingris and DeVance the basketball.

The Mixers were so good in the half court that it made Yap's foul-plagued evening irrelevant while Coach Yeng Guiao and the Elastopainters were trying their best to keep the game close. But even when star guard Paul Lee started making shots in the 2nd half, the Mixers just kept on pounding the basketball inside behind Pingris' superhuman efforts.

If you're a Mixers fan, you have to love the hustle and fight brought by the team's superstars. They're playing big minutes (as superstars should) and fighting a team that just comes at you in waves-- forcing them to play on a higher level. They've managed to win 2 out of 5 games while effectively shutting down the Elastopainters' main gunner Jeffrei Chan (hasn't cracked over 20 points this series), Gabe Norwood is back to being the usual yet plain 8-5-5 guy and even Lee (ditto). Another Elastopainters' key big man, Jervy Cruz, has also been "under control" since his breakout game early in the series.

For the Elastopainters, you just have to pray that these guys are due for a breakout.