Ready for a battle

From one King Warrior to another

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a series.

San Mig Coffee Mixers head coach Tim Cone stepped up to the plate to once again prove why he is arguably the league's best bench tactician (which was only in jeopardy the last couple of years because of the rise of now SMART Gilas head coach Chot Reyes), making the correct adjustments to stifle the Rain or Shine Elsatopainters' attack and equalize their PBA Philippine Cup semifinals showdown 1-1.

Of course, credit goes to hurting star James Yap for coming up big and knocking down shots while appearing as though he's hardly broken a sweat. The Mixers won 106-82 behind Yap's explosive 34 points built around an avalanche of long range shots while getting able and ample support from Mark Barroca, Joe DeVance (our pick as series X-factor for the Mixers) and PJ Simon.

Defensively, the Mixers started off small and it helped them keep in step with the Elastopainters. In Game 1, the Elastopainters ran the Mixers' array of bigs (Yancy de Ocampo, Rafi Reavis, Pingris) into a bunch of screen and rolls all the way up top which left them literally in the dust (even by the likes of their super heavyweight counterparts Beau Belga and JayR Quinahan). With Pingris, DeVance, Reavis and rookie Aldrech Ramos playing more minutes-- Coach Cone was guaranteed of having bigs that can run the floor and recover in time whenever there's a switch (which the Elastopainters' bank on).

The team took out the pick and roll play which limited Paul Lee. It also took away Extra Rice, Inc.'s stretch threes (and in Belga's case, his patented "pump fake, blink-and-you-miss, Air Jollibee express drive"). That left the Elastopainters with Jeffrei Chan, who was being hounded by a determined Simon (who is actually a solid defender when motivated and not asked to carry the scoring load). Chan is on an ugly stretch so far (save for Game 1), simply jacking up shots in a very undisciplined manner-- perhaps they could go to him early (start him, sit Lee).

Was there a sense of urgency seen from the Mixers?

Hardly, they were just in control and making shots. Yap was feeling it, the adjustments that they made more on the defensive end was working and that spelled the difference come the 2nd half. Of course, you could say that the Elastopainters appeared to have taken their collective "foot" off the gas in the 2nd half after taking a double digit lead early in the first (they sure as hell weren't hellbent on rebounding the basketball last night as they did in Game 1), but you can't ignore the coaching brilliance of Coach Cone.

Like they always say, a series doesn't start until someone gets blown out. Let's see how the Elastopainters respond come Christmas Day.