#NoBenta

Off night or on purpose?

Last night’s 93-72 drubbing of the Barako Bull Energy squad by then winless Barangay Ginebra San Miguel left a sour taste in the mouths of most non-Ginebra fans.

If you’ve been paying close attention to how the Energy has been playing this conference, there are only two explanations for yesterday’s semi-alarming debacle. The team looked listless and lethargic, the defense was mostly man-to-man with little to no resistance to drives into the lane and the offense couldn’t have been anywhere near a Rajko Toroman-coached, urm, consulted squad.

But before we entertain any more “gift-giving” between “sister” teams (if you believe that Barako Bull and air21 are not on the San Miguel payroll, well, okay, that’s your choice) on the professional ranks, here’s to the reigning PBA Most Valuable Player Mark Caguioa (23 points) for never failing to put on a scoring exhibition and do whatever it takes for his team to win.

It seems that Ginebra import Vernon Macklin’s (21 points) claim that his initial poor outing in the South was more due to getting acclimated to Philippine weather had some bearing after all. He dominated the low post with a variety of spin lefts and rights, often finishing with a sweet baby hook that proved to be unstoppable. His counterpart, Energy’s Brock Evans (16 points), was left trying to hopelessly reach for the stars given their at least four inch- vertical discrepancy.

We’re also loving the fight and consistency coming from new recruit Mac Baracael (14 points), who was lost in the scheme of things over at his old team and whose freelancing wingman style fits Ginebra coach Alfrancis Chua’s game plan to a “T.” We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, Ginebra has a fighting chance whenever point guard L.A. Tenorio (10 points) steps up to the plate and plays up to his usual lofty standards—last night he wasn’t only scoring, but he was facilitating and stealing the Energy’s Josh Urbiztondo’s (16 points) lunch money as well.

For the Energy, other than Brock and Urbiztondo there was Allein Maliksi (10 points) but he was pretty much groping for form and wasn’t in any rhythm offensively. They were pretty stagnant on offense and weren’t moving the ball as much as Maliksi and the returning JC Intal opted for one-on-one forays. Brock was also playing too much of the high post, in a sorry attempt to pull his counterpart Macklin out of rebounding position. Problem was, his teammates didn’t get the memo and weren’t hustling for the boards.

Hopefully, we see less of games such as this one as to not rob the fans of their time and hard-earned money. For a stretch there when Ginebra was just driving into the lane repeatedly and the Energy weren’t even giving any fouls, we honestly felt like we were watching an All Star game (no D).