Scripted

Maybe we should all just stop with the conspiracy theories and just enjoy the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals as non-fans of both Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and San Mig Coffee Mixers.

It is a disservice after all, to the hard-working men who wake up in the morning, endure several exhausting routines and drills, and get a cheap shot in the rib or an elbow right on the kisser by day’s end. These are our modern day action stars, nay, heroes. They fight for the names printed on their jerseys, and the adoring masses who take an hour or two of their precious time to cheer them on.

So to the PBA players, fans and our readers, to you we sincerely apologize with all the “scripted” semantics.



We’ll simply leave all of that for Twitter, where it’s always nice to cat call and heckle the snot out of public personas. But on this blog, we will stick to where the story is: the basketball game.

In six games which has resulted in a 3-3- split, Ginebra and San Mig Coffee have found different methods to winning.

Game 1
San Mig Coffee 85 
Joe DeVance 20 points, PJ Simon 15p, 5 rebounds, Marc Pingris 10p, 7r
Ginebra 83
LA Tenorio 16p, 6 assists, Japeth Aguilar 14p, 9r

Game 2
Ginebra 93
Greg Slaughter 21p, 12r, JJ Heltebrand 11p, 4r
San Mig Coffee 64
PJ Simon 16p, Marc Pingris 15p

Game 3
San Mig Coffee 97
Mark Barroca 25p, 8r, 5a, PJ Simon 19p, Marc Pingris 15p, 12r
Ginebra 89
Greg Slaughter 29p, 13r, Mark Caguioa 21p, 8r

Game 4
Ginebra 85 
Mac Baracael 20p, LA Tenorio 16p
San Mig Coffee 82
James Yap 20p, 5r, Joe DeVance 13p, 4r

Game 5
San Mig Coffee 79
Mark Barroca 14p, 5r, Marc Pingris 12p, 5r
Ginebra 76
Chris Ellis 20p, 5r, JayR Reyes 11p, 11r

Game 6
Ginebra 94
Mark Caguioa 21 p, Greg Slaughter 20p, 11r
San Mig Coffee 91
Marc Pingris 20p, 6r, PJ Simon 17p

With those numbers, it’s safe to say that it’s the triumvirate of Barroca, Pingris and Simon who are the Mixers’ key to winning games while for Ginebra, it’s a little of getting something from everyone—be it a JayR Reyes or their underperforming wings Chris Ellis and Mac Baracael.

Also, that save for that huge Game 2 ass-whooping, that the series has really been THAT close and these two teams aren’t about to give up a PBA Philippine Cup Finals seat for anyone—corporate allegiances be damned.

Come Game 7, the two teams should already know where their strengths are. Which players to trust early, the ones you can afford to go on “heat checks” during the middle of the game, and the superstars who you go to in the 4th quarter win or lose.

For Ginebra, it has to be a conscious effort to not do a Petron and simply expect Slaughter and Aguilar to dominate while Tenorio orchestrates. This makes them very predictable, with all that’s left for San Mig Coffee to do is stop Tenorio and block his passing lanes down in the post. Ellis, Baracael and even Caguioa all need to chip in to help space the floor and open things up.

For the Mixers, it’s about playing under control (which they have been in the games that they’ve won and even in Game 6 before they fizzled out). Barroca has emerged as a premier point guard who can not only drain clutch shots, but can also make plays defensively. Pingris and Simon are the trusted veterans, while rookie Justin Melton is arguably this series’ breakout star.

In a series of pre/mid/post game adjustments, you’ll have to worry if you’re a Ginebra fan because head coach Ato Agustin and team manager Alfrancis Chua seem to have trouble getting their acts (and plays) together during timeouts. This is a far cry of course from PBA Hall of Famer Tim Cone who simply gathers himself first during timeouts before delivering his “aaaaaiiiiggght” coaching spiels.

So enough with all the hooliganism and cat-calls, let’s all just sit back and enjoy the game.