Mental Toughness key for Mixers

Instead of working the refs,
Mixers need to go to work

The San Mig Coffee Mixers blew out the Rain or Shine Elastopainters just a few days ago, everyone thought that it would help turn the series in their corner and that they were in control. Well the "Nightmare on Christmas" happened, as the Elastopainters easily and handily returned the favor and sacked the Mixers in a demoralizing 98-72 fashion.

Elastopainters' head coach Yeng Guiao was right on two accounts: that his team had "more stoppers than they (Mixers) have scorers (James Yap and PJ Simon)" and also that the "burden of adjustments" fall squarely on Mixers' head coach Tim Cone et. al. There's no other way to go about it, it seems as though all the Elastopainters have to do to win the series is to "stay the course" which is to play to their trademark: aggressive, physical and relentless style. When they're sticking to the Mixers, hustling for the basketball and doing the little things such as Jireh Ibanes getting into Yap's face even when the 2x PBA MVP isn't even the focus of a play, it will translate to an Elastopainter victory no matter how close/ far the scores are.

As for the Mixers, they have no one else to blame but themselves.

You could argue that the Elastopainters' are winning because they have more guys who can contribute on any given night and put up the points, but we say it's more of Coach Cone's overall design. Surely, given the same amount of touches enjoyed by the Elastopainters' Larry Rodriguez (who has been the 4th and important wheel for them behind Paul Lee, Jervy Cruz and Jeffrei Chan), you'd expect either Joe DeVance or Marc Pingris to come up with 12 points easily. But that's not Coach Cone's play. He knows just as much as everyone else does that the scoring load goes to Yap, Simon and Mark Barroca. He expects the other guys to be role players 100% and do the dirty work. It is a design that has been born and bred from the 90s or the "Michael Jordan" years and so far, it hasn't been working.

Last night we saw Yap abandoning whatever worked in Game 2 and tried to force the action a bit. You have to commend him for "mixing it up" and not just relying on his jumpers, but not only was he trying to beat Defensive Player of the Year Jireh Ibanes one-on-one in a game of machismo, but he was driving straight into help defenders all ready, graciously willing to stop him. Yap finished with only 6 points, well below his lofty standards as one of the game's elite players and it was all because of the Elastopainters. Not because of any injury that they're trying to play up (Paul Lee has bruised ribs, he announced it in a pocket interview before Game 3. Kudos to the AKTV people for not digging it up earlier and putting it out there-- they were too busy playing up Yap's "injured or not" knee).

For the Mixers to win, they need to crash the boards. Hard. With desperation. Pingris will always be Pingris. And it was nice of Coach Cone to "do a Yeng" and change his starting frontline-- going with Rafi Reavis and Yancy de Ocampo. It was a foolish move, as he probably banked on YdO to come up with another vintage performance (he didn't) versus a smaller Elastopainters frontline of Cruz and Quinahan. Well, what Quinahan lacks in height, he makes up for with heft and physicality-- two things that have irked the "soft" YdO throughout the years.

So when YdO wasn't scoring, that left the Mixers with Reavis. And only an idiot wouldn't know that Reavis is only as good with the basketball when all he's asked to do is lay it in. Cruz is too good a player not to know that, so all he did was really box the skinny Fil-Am out of rebounding position.

Because Coach Cone opted to start his two centers who usually sub for one another, his bench became thinner. Pingris and DeVance did well, but JDV to us has always been a "slow starter" type of player who needs to play heavy minutes to get into any kind of groove. Pingris coming off the bench is a bad ploy because it matches him up directly versus Rodriguez, Ronnie Matias and Belga-- guys who are of the same height as he is. His best match-up comes versus the smaller Cruz and slower Quinahan. Against Rodriguez and Matias, well, Pingris looks average out there, even rookie-ish (a lot of wasted movement, jumping around and all, while Rodriguez and Matias a.k.a. KKS Kargador Corps, makes the game look easy).

Game 4 will be decided if Coach Cone can somehow call out his players to match the Elastopainters' natural style of aggressive, rugged basketball. They can't afford to be defensive here or wait for what @realwillsee says are #SMCCalls (calls that favor the Mixers, they are getting a lot specially when it comes to their star Yap) they need to push the basketball behind Barroca and get him into good scoring positions as the Elastopainters' guards aren't that quick on their feet (Lee is slow laterally, Tiu as well, Norwood is the biggest threat there, but have YdO send a bruising, elbows-out pick to soften the 6"5 Fil-Am out of the way for a good 2-3 seconds and Barroca should be okay).

Funny really, because Coach Cone doesn't seem like he knows how to design pick and roll plays. That or he doesn't trust Barroca enough to give him such calls yet. He's their best guy to score and create really because he's the fastest out there.

Yap needs to stop trying to barge into the heart of the defense (leave that to Barroca) and pick his spots on the floor. Ibanes looks to be healthy, Ryan Arana (the PBA's TRUE sneakerhead king) is always willing to mix it up, Norwood is wiry and wily and now there's Matias who's bigger and looks to have accepted the challenge of guarding the "Face of the PBA." With Yap, he needs to learn how to use baseline screens instead of the ones that come easy (the ones from the top), he'll get hit by Extra Rice, Inc. but the Elastopainters will get called for fouls (given their reputation, and the fact that all Yap needs to do is pretend to get hit and he's bound to be given the benefit of the calls given his place in the league).

Simon has been consistent, but not to the point wherein he is able to take over the game. He's a scorer through and through, but there should come a time wherein he takes on the challenge of going after the Elastopainters' Lee (since Yap and Chan can cancel each other out). If Simon switches on Lee while Yap sticks on Chan, that leaves us with Barroca guarding Norwood. Don't worry, Norwood's not going to post Barroca up or do anything crazy. He's not that gifted offensively. If his jumpers aren't falling (it usually doesn't), then the Mixers should be okay.

For the Mixers to tie this series 2-2, they need change on the floor. A change in mentality and approach. Mico Halili would love this, but we really think that Jerwin Gaco should be used in Reavis' place. They're both rebounders,  but Reavis relies more on his length while Gaco relies on his muscle. The Elastopainters' Cruz-- who is rising into "double double" level, is of the same height as the former DLSU enforcer and it would be an instant classic watching them play down low.

Sometimes, you have to fight fire with fire.