PBA CC Playoffs: 1 San Miguel vs 8 Star

Ngiting Gary D.
(Photo by: PBA Inquirer)

It is funny how life, truly is, shaped like a wheel-- or a basketball even.

One day you find yourself atop, enjoying the warm sunshine and the loving caress of a well-trained and highly-skilled athlete, the next you are making ugly, brutal, anal sex with a sweaty, smelly, slimy, hard court with spit, shit and dirt on it.

That is how we can best describe the lives of both the conference-leading, Grand Slam-seeking San Miguel Beermen and the "happy to just win games and save face" Star Hotshots. Just a few years ago, Star was atop the mountain while the Beermen were caught in an ugly basketball-novela.

Now?



Coach Leo Austria's Beermen are unstoppable with import Tyler Wilkerson (43/37/14/3), Marcio Lassiter (37/15/4/3), Alex Cabagnot (30/15/4/4) and Chris Ross (31/9/4/7) picking up for "subpar" performances by mainstays and PBA MVPs Arwind Santos (26/11/4/1) and Junemar Fajardo (27/13/9/1).

The Hotshots on the other hand, under Coach Jason Webb, are struggling. Hard. They haven't quite figured out yet if they should play slow or fast (though Coach Jason has stated many times over that he wants to run) and are just blessed to have found an inside presence in import Ricardo Ratcliffe (37/27/17/3).

With Ratliffe in the post, Mark Barocca (32/9/5/5, Marc Pingris (31/8/7/2), 2x PBA MVP James Yap (28m/11p/3r/2a), PJ Simon (27/12/3/1) and Allein Maliksi (24/16/4/1) have been able to focus on just getting into their spots and play a more traditional, "in-then-out" style as opposed to the Beermen's flexible, pick-your-poison approach.

To win, Star needs to dictate and control tempo. They cannot engage the Beermen in a running match full-time, because it would hurt their import who is their biggest contributor. Fortunately, Fajardo isn't 100% healthy so they can afford to play at this pace and would only need to make their shots. If they could maybe hide Pingris on someone else, keep it close, and switch him on the face-up playing Wilkerson in the 4th, maybe, just maybe, they can steal a game or two.

But then again, we can envision a bunch of Gary! Gary! Gary! chants from the SMB crowd as early as the first game. Yep, we are talking blowouts.

Prediction: San Miguel