PBA GovCup Finals: Petron deals first blow

If Game 1 of the PBA Governor's Cup Finals is a preview of things to come, then we're going with Petron Blaze's Alex Cabagnot and Marcio Lassiter when they said that they'd prefer a sweep of San Mig Coffee.

Lutz and Lassiter proved to be
a handful for San Mig Coffee
(Photo courtesy of Sports5)

Riding on the hot hands of Chris Lutz late (12 points) and the superb triple double effort of import Elijah Millsap (35 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists), Petron Blaze had control of the game save for a mini San Mig Coffee run in the 3rd canto. The disparity in personel became quite obvious early when Petron Blaze's 6"10 rookie Junemar Fajardo was pretty much having his way inside versus 6"5 counterpart Marc Pingris.

San Mig Coffee tried to address the Fajardo conundrum by fielding in little-used 6"9 big man Yancy de Ocampo, but he proved a little too skinny. Also, instead of pulling Fajardo out of the paint by staying by the high post to three point line area where he is more effective, de Ocampo went with his pride and opted to challenge the youngster mano-a-mano (in which he failed rather miserably).


To win, San Mig Coffee needs to put de Ocampo in situations where he is a threat to score if only to keep Fajardo busy and outside of the block. Once the big Cebuano is out of there, head coach Tim Cone needs to remind his players to not take outside shots and just go hard to the rim to score or bait Fajardo into foul trouble. Pingris tried his best out there (16 points, 2nd team best) but he is more of a liability since he is not much of an offensive threat.

We'd love for Coach Cone to consider bringing Pingris off the bench, while going with a frontline of Joe DeVance, Marqus Blakely and de Ocampo first. All three have solid to good range which will keep Fajardo busy and could ultimately force the hand of Petron Blaze head coach Gee Abanilla to adjust and bring in smaller guys.

Of course, that would only work if all three San Mig Coffee bigs are able to make shots.

Two-time PBA MVP James Yap also needs to consider going to the lane or at the very least, asking for the ball and making plays since he can force the referees to make calls in their favor. Tonight, Yap was balls-to-balls guarded by his buddy (the Scottie Pippen to his University of the East Michael Jordan, really) Ronald Tubid which had him finishing with a measly 8 points. Maybe have him run through more brush screens and so on-- since the referees kept calling those in the semifinals versus Meralco.

For Petron Blaze, it's just being consistent and playing as a team. We're quite pleased with the minimal display of hero-ball as it should be with such a star-studded roster. Arwind Santos, gunning for his 1st PBA MVP award after years of being the statistical bridesmaid, has also chosen to concentrate on other facets of the game beginning with defense and rebounding.

We're sticking with what we said earlier, that Chris Lutz and Marcio Lassiter are going to decide the outcome of this series more than Yap, Fajardo or the imports.

Tonight we were proven right.