After a fiery start in the PBA Philippine Cup, the Petron Blaze Boosters find themselves looking for religion as they are now down 1-3 to the Rain or Shine Elastopainters in their semifinals duel.
As much as Petron fans would like to believe that this series is still salvageable, and that if there's any PBA team that can come back from the ashes it would be their guys, it's hard to imagine the Elastopainters losing three straight after maybe a ten game stretch wherein they only lost one (Game 3 to the Boosters). To win, the Boosters will need to work as a cohesive unit immune from individual forays and exploits. There was a time in basketball when all you needed was maybe two to three monster players supported by a couple of bums and presto: instant championship parade.
Well, the Elastopainters are made of mostly "bums" save for maybe two or three 1st round picks the last few years, so what's the Boosters' excuse?
With their team at the brink of elimination, Boosters' fans are looking for culprits. Guys who they expected would take them to the next level but couldn't deliver when it mattered. Unsurprisingly, we are back to maybe the "last two" original San Miguel Beermen-Petron Blaze (before they go back to the SMB name and colour):
Reigning PBA Most Valuable Player Arwind Santos and Alex Cabagnot.
Now, looking at the stats, Santos appears to be every inch the MVP: 17 ppt, 13.5 rpg, 2.25 apg, 1.10 spg, 1.45 bog in 38 minutes per game. Cabagnot isn't as shabby as advertised, with 10 ppg, 3 rpg, 3 apg.
But then you take a deeper look and see that Santos has had two games wherein he has taken 17 shots. And that Cabagnot is currently in a funk, going 13/ 40 from the field which is something you'd expect from his backup Chris "no J" Ross but definitely not from the man Quinito Henson touted as "The Crunchman."
With names like Junemar Fajardo, Marcio Lassiter and Chris Lutz on the roster, you'd think that these two veterans would make their lives easier and just share the basketball with their younger yet able teammates.
Can Santos and Cabagnot still turn it around to, at the very least, live to fight another day?
Or should someone do everyone a favour and break-up the most frustrating PBA duo since Marlou Aquino-Dennis Espino?
Yeah, agreed that Cabagnot should share the ball more. He's been off the whole series especially when being hounded by Gabe Norwood and Jireh Ibanez.
ReplyDeleteFor Arwind, I think it's hopeless to rely on him for offense in the last minutes of the game. This doesn't mean he should be taken out of the game though, just too good to keep on the bench. Instead of him positioning for open jumpers which are likely to miss, they should instruct him to go crash the boards. So that one, he will not be the guy ROS double off from and two, he could hurt ROS with offensive rebounds and putbacks. On defense they should give him clear instruction to just shut his own guy down instead of always going for the help. He's really been the target of ROS penetrations with drop passes to his man after the help. It doesn't help that Petron's perimeter players can't slow down their counterparts.
One key for Petron to still have a chance on this series is to stop relying too much on Fajardo. The only game that they won was when Fajardo didn't have a good start and the other guys were able to get in rhythm. They need to find a balance in feeding the big guy and running plays for other players especially early in the game.
As for ROS, they are not really lacking in talent right now. Everyone of their players really developed well because of their system and how Coach Yeng instills confidence. Arguably, their current team might be their best yet especially in terms of chemistry, Coach Yeng really has a good chance to finally grab that elusive All Filipino Championship.
Cabagnot to be fair can distribute the ball well... although this happens mostly in the first half. At the restart, he dribbles the air out of the ball before putting up ill advised shots OR passing the ball and the blame to a teammate at the very last second of the shot clock.
ReplyDeleteArwind always moves away from the paint during crunchtime. And can be seen camping around the rainbow, for reasons only known to the Spiderman. When, in fact, he can make a living around the paint, esp on the weak side, waiting for the miss or drop pass.
JuneMar's minutes should be managed well for Petron to win anymore game(s).