Texters load up; Series tied 2-2

You may hate the shirt, but you have
to love the multiple championships

Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters' head coach Chot Reyes does it again.

After throwing stars Ranidel de Ocampo and Jimmy Alapag under the bus in the post-game interview of their Game 3 loss, Coach Chot was able to make himself look like half a genius with RDO's solid bounce-back performance.

While Alapag continues to struggle with his cover of BMeg Llamados' Josh Urbiztondo and PJ Simon, RDO was able to play free tonight-- attacking the rim and not settling for jumpers. It also helped the Texters' cause that Jarred Dillinger decided to take over the game, as KKS predicted, and played lights out on offense and defense.

The Fireball Rises

Coach Tim has The Fireball on target

If you were to tell me that a 2009 PBA draft reject were to outplay the reigning league Most Valuable Player in three straight games of the 2012 Commissioner's Cup Finals, I'd slap you silly for the blatant dumbness of it all.

Don't get it wrong, the US 2005-2006 Sunbird Awardee has legit skills for any 6"1 Filipino-American basketball player. When he first came over Philippine shores in 2006, he suited up in the PBL for UST-Kettle Korn and was already making waves as a crack point guard. He bounced around amateur leagues such as La Liga Pilipinas and then back to the PBL before entering the draft which, unfortunately for him, didn't work out.

Tim Cone will never be an underdog

Who's your daddy?!?

Prior to the PBA Commissioner's Cup Finals, people pencilled in the participating teams as how everyone saw them. The mighty Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters as the rightful favorites, going for their 4th title in 5 tries and the rising BMeg Llamados as the underdogs, the "good but not great" squad ready to takeover the local basketball scene.

Three games in, and we couldn't have been any more wrong.

A Pingris a day keeps The Doctor away

Don't let the box score fool you,
Pingris is the real MVP of this series for BMeg

For a guy whose inclusion in the upcoming SMART Gilas 2 men's basketball team raised some eyebrows for an apparent and obvious lack of offensive skillset, the BMeg Llamados' Marc Pingris is proving doubters wrong with his superb defensive exploits in both playoffs and Finals.

Tasked to shutdown the Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters' postman and resident KKS Doctor Ranidel de Ocampo, Pingris has done all that and more by putting up (in the first 2 games) 10 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2 assists on average. These may not look much, but check out RDO's ugly stat line of 5.5 points and 4 rebounds with zero assists and you'll realize that yes, Pingris is getting the job done.

No Signal for Mighty Mouse, The Doctor

Will the real Ranidel please stand-up?

This series could've easily been at 2-0 in favor of the Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters right now if only two of the Texters top 3 one-on-one scorers lived to expectations. Two games in, and Texters fans are still waiting for reigning PBA Most Valuable Player Jimmy "Mighty Mouse" Alapag and best damn big man in the business, The KKS Doctor, Ranidel de Ocampo to make their presence felt.

How else could you explain their abysmal showing thus far-- being terribly outplayed by their counterparts on the BMeg Llamados' front- Josh Urbiztondo and Marc Pingris?

Tabla! Texters fight back

Catch him if you can!

Talk about having the heart of champions-- the Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters survived a scintillating, throwback James Yap performance behind the exploits of their own MVP-caliber player Jayson "The Blur" Castro.

Of course, there's also the dominant performance by blue collar Texters import Donnel Harvey who more than held his own against the Llamados' young giant Denzel Bowles who made a couple of crucial errors in the closing seconds-- passing the ball to the wrong guy, missing a free throw and deciding to make the 2nd one when they were down 3 and so on. Just the kind of mistakes you'd expect a 22-year-old to make on the biggest stage of them all.

Back to Castro, and how the "Man with a Million Injuries" kept the Texters in the fight in the 4th quarter when the Llamados were up by four-five points. Man-for-man, the Llamados have a good 6-7 man rotation with two legit scorers in Yap and buddy PJ Simon while the Texters have Castro, Ranidel de Ocampo and at times, Jimmy Alapag within a solid 10 man rotation.

The Great Debate: Yap or Simon

The modern day Meneses-Duremdes?

So who’s better—the two-time Most Valuable and now de facto (after a series of trades and releases) franchise player James Yap or vastly underrated and once “Super Sub,” “Scoring Apostle” Peter June Simon?

In case you haven’t been paying much attention to the BMeg Llamados of late and have only seen them in their successful PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals Game 1 campaign, Simon has quickly overtaken Yap in terms of doing more for his team—say, putting up the points because defense can only do so much at day’s end.

That’s not to say that Yap has been coasting this season—he’s playing arguably the most complete basketball game we’ve seen of him to date by moving without the ball, rebounding and looking for the open man. Before, Yap would get his assists by simply stopping up top and looking for cutters. These days, he makes solid to good kick-out passes while being on the move himself which creates for a more difficult cover for opponents.

MV-Ring

Can you hear it Gary?
We can. They're saying M-V-P.

In the NBA, the Most Valuable Player award is given after the regular season regardless if the leading candidate makes it all the way to the Finals or not. That is why we've all had the privilege of recognizing some of the world's greatest basketball players who may or may not rule your television sets or play on the biggest stage of them all.

The same cannot be said however, for the PBA. Since our favorite basketball association plays three conferences in a season, the MVP trophy is given only after 2 3/4 of the season has been played. The last couple of MVP awardees have all enjoyed championship runs, the most recent being Jimmy Alapag of the Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters.

But this year, it looks like we're in for one of those "history in the making," "feel good" stories.

BMeg solves TNT Matrix in Game 1

PJ Simon shines
over Yap for BMeg

If this game is any indication of what we're going to be watching, nay, witnessing for the next two weeks then they should just move the games from the SMART Araneta Coliseum that fits 17,000 plus max to the Quirino Grandstand where hundreds could enjoy it live.

The BMeg Llamados took control of the game early, surprisingly deciding to run with the Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters before finally slowing the game down and playing it per possession. Coach Tim Cone entrusted the scoring to under-rated scorer PJ Simon, who pretty much had a field day on the floor by using his speed against Ryan Reyes and height over Jayson Castro. Simon was doing it all on the floor, even playing big point guard no thanks to a rather subpar performance from 2x MVP teammate James Yap.

The Gilas 2 Replacements

Quick! Sign him to Gilas 2 before
he gets traded to a San Miguel team

Marcio Lassiter, Alex Cabagnot, Arwind Santos, James Yap and Marc Pingris.

All on Chot Reyes' SMART Gilas 2's roster. All under San Miguel Corporation contracts. All have yet to submit their signed letter of intent for playing for flag and country.

From an All-Asian standpoint, that team could very well contend as a legit First Five against everyone but the skilled and tall athletes coming from Iran and China. Against South Korea and Chinese Taipei? That five will more than hold its own offensively and defensively. Santos is the country's best all-around player, Pingris is arguably this side of the world's most tenacious player and Lassiter, Cabagnot and Yap are not all that bad as well.

Texters as Kainan? Nah, think Shoyo

The Talk 'n' Text SHOYO Texters

Since this writer has been a long time Slam Dunk fan back when it was still being aired (although inconsistently, some weeks it's there, others it isn't) on ABC 5 (the precursor to today's MVP-owned TV5), it's quite entertaining to see that it's being used in parallelisms with the PBA.

For that, we'd have to thank idol FireQuinito Jaemark Tordecilla, who was the first to really push for Purefoods/ BMeg's Marc Pingris to be identified as the "Pinoy Sakuragi." From the day that I first read his post about Pingris being the local version of the volatile yet extremely gifted red-haired anime, it definitely stuck and I'm just happy that we now have a moniker that best suits Pingris instead of having Mico Halili give him a childish sounding one ala Smurfinator or Ranidelsky De Ocamposchnitsky whatever.

Done Deal

Rabeh: Dominant when/if focused

Try as we may to believe that the PBA is one and on the same page in ensuring that fans get their money's worth in games which requires healthy competition and league-wide balance, at day's end it's still a business wherein winning at all costs will always be at the minds of players, officials and most of all, team owners.

Weeks after the initial trade between Powerade and Petron Blaze was vetoed (and met with so much venom you'd think the San Miguel franchise suddenly became the local, basketball version of the WWE heel stable Evolution), it's now back on the table with the same lead players but different support/ spare parts.

Gilas 2 on hold

Sa tagal mag practice ng Gilas 2,
baka manlamig na ng tuluyan ung kamay nito

The coach has been named, the players' identified and signed (except for those affiliated with the San Miguel brand) so why are we no longer hearing any updates on the SMART Gilas 2 squad?

Oh, that's right, most of the prominent names on the SG2 roster are going to participate in the grand PBA Commissioner's Cup Finals in hopes of securing a championship for their mother teams. These are times when the "Mother Land" takes a back seat then, when the players are asked and under contract to play their hearts out for the brands they wear on their jerseys and puts food on their tables.

Earn your keep

Will Cone ever convince Urbiztondo
to stop with the heat checks?

When Tim Cone was brought in by the San Miguel brass to helm the suddenly flailing BMeg Llamados in the PBA, he wasn’t signed to develop a champion team for the future. He was brought in to win, and to win now.

How else could you explain the sudden revamp of the line-up, trading away key player Kerby Raymundo for the uber-athletic JC Intal and the releasing another team leader Roger Yap to the ABL San Miguel Beermen? Yes, the Intal move was a push for a younger line-up, but it also put a clear premium on a “win now” mentality.

BMeg vs Talk 'n' Text: The match-ups

BMeg's dilemma: Castro can guard Yap.
But Yap can't guard Castro

What an amazing ride to the PBA Commissioner's Cup Finals!

Kudos to all the players, the Barako Bull Energy and Barangay Ginebra Kings for putting up entertaining bouts day in and day out. The ball could've easily gone either way in some of the games, but at day's end, we are finally being treated to the Finals showdown that was pretty much inevitable.

The Dynasty (in the making pa ba yun sa dami ng titulo nila the last 2-3 years) versus the team that is building its way into becoming one. The Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters versus the B-Meg Llamados.


PG Josh Urbiztondo/ Mark Barroca/ Jonas Villanueva vs Jimmy Alapag/ Jayson Castro
It has finally dawned on us. The quick, long range threes. The swagger. The ballsy plays. Urbiztondo is trying to play exactly like reigning MVP Alapag only he doesn't have the passing skills to boot. Even if the Llamados keep rotating their guards, this is a one-sided match-up heavily favoring the Texters. Alapag is too savvy, Castro to quick, athletic and strong. The best chance the Llamados have is if their Urbiztondo-Barroca can hold their own early, before Villanueva checks in full time late to play lockdown D. If not, then you'll see Castro running around Urbiztondo and Barroca much like Meralco's Sol Mercado and even Ginebra's Mike Cortez did in the playoffs.

Adv. TNT

Energy implodes, send Texters to Finals

They were hit. They were bloodied.
But still the Texters rose to the occasion.

The Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters do it again. For the second straight conference, they rise from the brink of elimination to advance to the next round which is the PBA Commissioner's Cup Finals.

Great series all in all, with the Barako Bull Energy squeezing out all they could from their tired, old legs. They played physical, played hard and were even fortunate enough to have grizzled champion veterans in the fold taking turns in leading them game in and game out.

Ginebra Plays The Blame Game

After another disappointing run,
Siot's walking on thin ice

Could the Barangay Ginebra Kings really have won their epic semifinals duel with the mighty BMeg Llamados had they chosen to keep Chris Alexander instead of the now “butt-of-all-chokes/jokes” Jackson Vroman?

Would they have advanced to the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals had Mark Caguioa not suffered the nasty eye socket injury he did (also at the hands of BMeg but in an earlier showdown)?

True to form: BMeg advances to Commish Cup Finals

The Llamados benefited from Caguioa's absence, yes,
but this writer argues that even with Caguioa
the Kings would've still lost

The second the KKS Vince McMahon of the PBA was rumored to have met with future Hall of Fame head coach Tim Cone to discuss the possibility of bringing the American's talents to the San Miguel  fold, it was but a matter of time until both were rewarded with repetitive deep playoff runs (and quite possibly, titles one after the other).

In the Philippine Cup, the BMeg Llamados won mostly on talent rather than teamwork. Guys were coming out big, playing to their strengths while slowly adapting to Cone's intricate Triangle Offense. When that wasn't working, Cone decided to work on another facet of the Llamados' uber-talented roster: defense.

Trillo-era Begins for Alaska

It was Trillo. All along.

Forget that the man had two lousy, winless seasons with the Adamson Falcons in the UAAP despite having the uber-talented Ken Bono, sharp shooting Patrick Cabahug, wing man Mark Abadia, Ruel Hugnatan, Marvin Polyapoy, Ramil Tagupa and the closest thing the UAAP juniors had to an Allen Iverson (back in the day) Leo Canuday (who was blatantly robbed of an MVP trophy by Ateneo and Ken Baracoso) at one point or another-- Luigi Trillo has been called upon by Wilfred Uytengsu to right the Alaska Aces ship that Joel Banal has "wronged."

Granted, Trillo is enjoying a renaissance of sorts as far as his coaching career is concerned-- leading the Cebuana Lhullier team in the PBADL to respectable finishes the last two seasons and even in this one. But the guy was called upon by Uytengsu in an effort to "return to the Triangle Offense."

Championship Swag

TNT: Grace under pressure

Just the other day the Barako Bull Energy, their believers and even some underdog-rooting converts (such as this writer) were a step closer to making it into the PBA Commissioner's Cup Finals. Their story was to be told for weeks, years and even ages. The "little engine that could," the "David" to the mighty Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters' "Goliath." They were only a game away.

Unfortunately, tonight happened.

Gin Kings stay alive

KKS Big Easy

Said it before, will say it again: anytime you complement Mike "Cool Cat" Cortez with a knockdown shooter (Nino Canaleta), he's bound to get numbers, the other guy's going to blow up and their team is going to win.

Ren Ren Ritualo at La Salle, Willie Miller at Alaska and now, with their backs against the wall the Cool Cat finds the sharp shooting Canaleta. Say what you will about the once flashy, side show slam dunker, but he has worked his ass off to become the shooter her is today. His defense (once his calling card in college ala fellow UE alum Hans Thiele) has dipped a bit, but you'd take that if in return are net-swooshing threes that look so effortless (from now on, based on how effortless he shoots the ball from deep, Canaleta gets his own KKS moniker: Big Easy. )

Goodbye Joel

Was it really Banal's fault?

Well that was fast.

Coaching and personel selection errors aside, Joel Banal remains to be one of the better coaching minds in the business though rumors have it that he's on his way out of the Alaska Aces camp.

After given a fresh 3-year pact to lead the post-Tim Cone Aces, Banal was given only two conference to prove his worth and lead the young and developing squad into a Playoff contender. The first time out, they were pretty much a mess and were trying to run a sham of the Triangle Offense.

Energy punks out Texters

Energy will win if they continue
to keep Pena fresh for the 4th

If the Talk 'n' Text Tropang Texters fail to advance to the Finals in the PBA Commissioner's Cup, then not only would it come as a shock to the local basketball front, but they'll have only themselves to blame.

In Game 2, we all thought that the tables have finally turned and that the Texters were ready to follow up with a rousing performance in Game 3. Not only did the survive the veteran-laden Barako Bull Energy's physicality, but they ran them roughshod to the ground. But something changed, this writer touched on it in the last two entries (be happy if you could check it out) and it worked to perfection.

The Energy made three key adjustments that pretty much sealed the deal.

Tuned out

Is Siot still in charge?

It's hard to be a coach in the professional league, specially if you're asked to steer the basketball scene's most popular squad which has the roster to make deep playoff runs night in and night out.

Tonight, Barangay Ginebra head coach Siot Tangquincen experienced what most coaches fear the most-- to be tuned out by his own team in the crucial stage of their Game 2 duel with the BMeg Llamados that they ended up losing. No timeouts were called when Ginebra clearly needed one to settle down the troops. Siot was frantically pacing up and down the court trying to get everyone's attention.