PBA Commish Cup semis: Ginebra makes a statement

"WTF Jerome? I had centers
in college that play D better than you."

What in the blue mfkng hell was that?

The favored Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters suffered a humiliating and near-devastating 81-104 blowout at the hands of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel to kickstart their PBA Commisioner's Cup semifinals showdown. This, after appearing to have recovered mid-conference and looking as poised as ever to march on to their nth PBA Finals

Well, don't tell Ginebra that.

Displaying true camaraderie and desire, Ginebra took control of the match-up early and never let up. Everyone who was watching and knew the history of the Texters were anticipating a huge second half comeback, even Ginebra fans were waiting for it but it never materialized. The Texters put together five to seven point runs, but Ginebra would simply answer back via a Josh Urbiztondo (12 points) triple, Vernon Macklin (25) "meet me at the rim" play or an L.A. Tenorio (8) fearless and untouchable drive.

Truly, the Texters were more than man-handled on the floor tonight. They were just blown right off their game.

Ginebra import Vernon Macklin proved to be too much for Texters counterpart Jerome Jordan (who scored most of his 21 points in garbage time) while wings Mac Baracael (12) and Chris Ellis (13) also did damage and more than held their own.

On the other side of the fence, Jayson Castro (18) was doing his best to keep his team in it as well as Ranidel de Ocampo (12) but just couldn't get anything out of usually dependable Jimmy Alapag (3) and Larry Fonacier (4). Hell, even Ryan Reyes (6) did a God-awful job in guarding Urbiztondo who was pretty much shooting his face off the entire night.

If you're Ginebra, you'd like to keep building on your current hot streak and appreciate the much-improved balance and chemistry on the floor. Even when the starters were taken out, the guys who replaced them had that look in their eyes that they wanted to stretch the lead some more and not take any minutes off as would other teams who are already up by 20 with 4 minutes to go do.

For TNT, this is not the end of the world. Not yet. It's only a game, they've proven more than capable to bounce back and we sincerely doubt that Urbiztondo would be as open as he was tonight. Expect him to see a lot more of Reyes, Aaron Aban and Pamboy Raymundo. It's only going to get tougher from here on out. Still, we expect TNT to be a lot more competitive on Sunday rather than their abysmal showing in tonight's game.

Ginebra deserved this win, and we're happy that they get to live for another day until Mark Caguioa comes back. Still, it would be a tad bit early to call this one over.

Not with a team like TNT.