Ginebra on fire

Slowly but surely, Kerby's back!

Winners of three straight, including last night's 84-81 yawn-fest versus the Meralco Bolts, the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel finds itself back in contention and finally playing with on-court chemistry and harmony. Though they are currently facing an injury scare with ace Mark Caguioa hurting his knee yesterday, you can't sleep on this team the way they're playing at the moment.

Gone is L.A. Tenorio's (11 ppg, 4 rpg, 6 apg) hesitance of taking control of the team and simply waiting for Caguioa (22 ppg 4 rpg 3 apg) to create scoring opportunities. In the last three wins, we've seen a more aggressive, back-to-normal Tenorio who fearlessly calls his own number, holds on to the basketball a bit longer rather than simply going to Caguioa and moving out of the way and just orchestrating like the floor general we know he is.

It took a while, but we're finally seeing it: Tenorio-Caguioa will be better than the old "Fast and Furious" combo of Jayjay Helterbrand and Caguioa for the simple reason that the former is a traditional, grade A point guard while the latter was and has always been a combo guard who can make passes. Make all your arguments, but we're convinced that if Caguioa plays the way he has been since last season and Tenorio simply goes back to his usual, high-level play, then Ginebra's backcourt would be the best in the business for maybe another two years.

There's also the return-to-form play of Kerby Raymundo (6 ppg 4rpg), finally appearing to have figured out how to play in Ginebra's frenetic-paced offense. Import Vernon Macklin (22 ppg 16 rpg) has been big of course, serving as the dominant postman that the team has longed for. There are also the unsung heroes like Chris Ellis, Mac Baracael and Billy Mamaril doing the little things for Ginebra.

There are only five games left for Ginebra, currently sitting on a shaky 4-5 record, if the team can manage to win at least three then they can probably make a run at the 4th spot of this conference. We're looking forward to the Talk 'n' Text and Alaska rematches this early.

Hopefully, the reigning PBA MVP Caguioa will be on the hard court.