 |
| All eyes on Fajardo |
To dismiss this Playoff match-up as just another "game on the schedule" would be a disservice-- borderline criminal even. We know the on-court rivalry which is shadowed moreso by what's going on off-court. What we have previously coined as "The Silent War" lives on; albeit toned down somewhat for the sake of Philippine basketball. But make no mistake about it, once the ball is in the air bodies will start getting thrown with reckless abandon and the bonus checks and other perks will be handed the winning team despite this not being for all the marbles just yet.
PG Jimmy Alapag/ Jayson Castro vs Denok Miranda/ Alex Cabagnot
The yardstick of all Filipino pointguards and his bull-strong, cat-quick understudy versus the guy who crashed the "Best PG discussion" a season ago (only to fall back down to earth) and a defensive-minded pitbull. Yep, this series will be ultimately decided by whichever backcourt will be able to dictate their team's tempo. We all know that Petron is a better team on the run while TNT (under coach Norman Black) prefers the old school, halfcourt grind-it-out approach. Castro vs Miranda will be interesting since it will push Miranda to the hilt and test his reputation as being one of the league's premier defensive guards. We know he has the body to match with Castro, we're not so sure if the same can be said about his speed. Alapag versus Cabagnot would be a masterful lecture on "Clutch 101"-- Cabagnot's been under a lot of heat for his hero-balling ways, but what do you call Alapag's ballsy long treys? Aren't those "hero ball" plays as well? Difference of course is that Alapag makes them. Cabagnot, after 15 seconds of dribbling the air out of the ball, just jacks and prays.
Adv. TNT
