Air21 started from the bottom...

The Cool Cat cometh

... now they're here.

Following tonight's victory over the injury and drama-challenged San Mig Coffee Mixers, the Air21 Express are on a three game winning streak and have slowly climbed back into playoff contention. Spearheading the cause are monstrous import Michael Dunigan (26 ppt, 15 rpg), sweet-shooting Nino Canaleta (11 points, 4 rebounds) and the return to form of point guard Mike Cortez (10 ppg, 5 rpg, 5 apg).

As much as we'd like to dismiss tonight's victory over the Mixers as a fluke owing to the latter's 2x PBA MVP James Yap's off-court drama and the injury to point-forward Joe DeVance, we just cannot ignore how efficient and sound the Express has been looking on the floor as of late.

While it may seem that this team goes wherever their import Dunigan takes them, the victories are really coming by way of how Cortez and Canaleta are working together. Cortez has been orchestrating and picking his spots, while Canaleta is enjoying his best stretch of basketball unseen since his days with the University of the East (the "post-Yap" era when he played alongside Arnold Booker although he didn't have this sort of range back then).

Coach Franz Pumeran has done a tremendous job in letting Cortez run the show while he works on the overall team defense. Though it's an odd pairing to have two of your best point guards starting games, Coach Franz has opted to go with Cortez and veteran Wynne Arboleda. What the two lack in firepower, they make up for with leadership and court smarts (not to mention Arboleda's man-to-man defense remains to be one of the best in the league).

What's keeping the Express (for now anyway) is the lack of support coming from the other guys. Their losses are mostly on nights when Cortez or Canaleta are not making plays/ shots and the brunt of the scoring is left in the hands of BonBon Custodio (who is pretty much Lordy Tugade II; awesome in the amateurs, okay in the pros), John Wilson (very inconsistent) and Mark Isip (under-sized). Truly, there's not much to go with when the team's leaders are not producing.

Going deeper into the conference, we're concerned about the minutes being given to Dunigan and Cortez. Dunigan, like old school imports before him, is playing at an insane 44 minutes a game while Cortez (slight injury and all) is averaging 33. We understand that Dunigan has a tireless motor as is expected of high caliber imports, but it's Cortez that we're worried about.

How long can Cortez keep this stellar level of play he's on? We know that it's been a while (he's only been playing 20-25 minutes with Ginebra before being sent to the Express) so the jury's still out on whether the Cool Cat can keep it going for his team.

A 4th consistent scorer is also required for this team to be a true dark horse-- Wilson needs to step up now that Ren-Ren Ritualo's minutes are up for grabs.