PBA Scenes: San Mig Super Coffee Mixers Win All-Filipino Cup Championship

Best of the Night. Reread the title of this entry. 'Nuff said.

(c) Nuki Sabio/PBA

Worst of the Night. The second quarter walkout. I get the whole rationale behind Rain or Shine's bench clearing, locker room-hitting move early in the second quarter. As a sports fan, I really think we all needed that just to add a lot more spice in the Finals. After all, we might be seeing the last game of this conference. I actually salute coach Yeng Guiao for the wrath just because I really expected this game to be special in one way or another. It's Game 6, you know. But then again, this appears beside the worst of the night header, and that's because of the sour consequences Rain or Shine is about to face. Commish Salud had it all set tomorrow. I believe this is gonna take a lot of money from the Painters' bank accounts, but we don't know any exact amount yet. Anyway, the funny side is that the Painters walked out of the court twice empty handed. Well, not really, they have the runners-up trophy on the second march. 


Final Score. Mixers 93-87 Painters

Finals MVP. Mark Barroca is the biggest little man among everyone who played their guts out in the Finals. After punching a lot of thighs tonight and scoring 24 points from 16 shots, Barroca, the Tamarraws kick-out, and former Gilas guard, wins the Finals MVP hardware. Nobody's gonna object on this because it's the Coffee Prince who actually pushed a lot of Potassium Chloride directly on the Painters' veins. With that I mean the big, clutch shots at end game. He dished 5 dimes too. So tonight, we didn't only saw the handling of the championship trophy to Marc Pingris, we saw the coronation of the next Coffee King. All hail!

Sweet Sixteen. Obviously, I'm not referring to coach Tim Cone's age in this one, but the number of championships he's won in the PBA... right now. As charged as always, Tim Cone overtook the great Baby Dalupan in terms of the number of rings kept in their cupboards. A couple of good news for the triangle system fans, I'm pretty sure that's not it for Tim Cone, and right now, his face will surely be etched in our imaginary PBA Mount Rushmore.  



Defense. Alright, after all, defense truly won the San Mig Coffee Mixers their Philippine Cup chip. The Mixers stopped the Painters' rhythm and disrupted their ball movements through out. Mixers went on to end the night shooting 50% from the field while limiting Rain or Shine to 39%.



Three-Point Slump. Both teams shot 20% from beyond the arc. How bad is that? San Mig drained 4 of 20 shots, Rain or Shine just nailed 6 of their 30. That wouldn't win them tickets at Timezone as well. The shooters went to sleep early this game. 

Worst of the Night Runner-Up. I remember stating that any ejection will be worst of the night. It still is if not because of that epic walkout. But this is easy, and I am sure that coach Yeng Guiao wouldn't mind receiving this runner-up header after he was ejected for throwing a ferocious bounce pass to referee Mariano. So in this epic night, coach Yeng Guiao delivered his usual numbers. One warning call, 2 technicals, one ejection, zero hair, and zero All-Filipino Cup title. Pretty tough way going home to Pampanga. 

Quote. All of the "Thank you's" you heard live or on TV. Nothing beats a celebration full of gratefulness. 

Bits.

-Beau Belga and Paul Lee didn't wanna give in just yet. In the dying seconds, Belga and Lee scored most of their final points.

-Paul Lee, by the way, had 23 points. Pretty valiant.

-I really think the "on fires" tonight should go to Joe Devance and PJ Simon. Both tripled their Game 5 outputs. Duh. 

-Like any given night, Marc Pingris had stopped Beau Belga, Raymond Almazan, Jeff Chan, Chris Tiu, Paul Lee, coach Yeng, coach Yeng's assistants, Painters' ballboys, Big Dome's mop boys, the cameraman sitting baseline, and apparently, everyone wearing dark clothes. Sakuragi is a defensive bull.

-Jerwin Gaco got a lot of swag celebrating in the dugout. He played for a total of 15 minutes this series, and even striked Yeng Guiao out, so he's got all the rights.

-Same with Rafi Reavis. At one point, I really thought he considers himself a candidte for MVP. Why not?

-Well, we need to let Cawaling and Holstein celebrate too because they are champs too, technically.

-If you're wondering, yes, Cawaling and Holstein are actual PBA players. I understand you though.

-All in all, this finals have been special. I don't know how, but it was.

The Commissioners' Cup starts next Wednesday. So that means the Mixers are really well rested.

     

PBA Scenes: Rain or Shine Elasto Painters vs San Mig Super Coffee Mixers Finals Game 5

Best of the Night. Jeff Chan's 24 points and three bigtime 3-pointers. Chan led Rain or Shine's revolt on staying alive in their duel with the remaining Cojuanco-dog in the Finals. The Painters slapped the Mixers with an 81-74 win, pulled themselves to 2-3 series tally, and forced a Wednesday night blockbuster. Though Chan needed 16 shots to punch those points, his blaze illuminated Rain or Shine, who, at one point, were ten points down, by draining timely three's in the fourth quarter. It's not too common, but this series is looking like it's gonna be won through three-pointers. No offense to the old, and more common "Defense wins championships" saying. 

(c) Nuki Sabio/ PBA

Worst of the Night. Field goal percentages. Okay, I have to apologize for saying that 3-pointers will decide this series. Obviously, defense did a bunch of ranting tonight. A strong evidence to this would be both teams' field goal efficiency. San Mig Coffee shot 26 of 68 (38.2%) from the field, even beating the winning Rain or Shine team percentage-wise. The Painters drained only 28 shots out of their 74 attempts (37.8%). Talk about defense talking about doing the most talking.

Better Numbers. San Mig Coffee's statistician fans everywhere might be rejoicing over their team's dominance in game 5. Too bad, that's just statistics-wise. Mixers actually beat Rain or Shine in a lot of departments. Rebounding, 49-47, free-throw shooting, 75%-60.7%, fastbreak points, 12-7, and second chance points, 10-6. The final score is the only number taken though, so big sorry for San Mig Coffee.

Tiu-torized. I honestly shout my lungs out everytime Chris Tiu does something spectacular in the game earlier. Too bad for me, now I'm losing my voice. Chris Tiu, being the last Chris remaining in the conference, decided to step it up tonight in the name of every Chris in the league. The Atenean dropped 9 points from 4 shots, grabbed 3 rebounds, dished 2 assists, and sniped a steal, just in 17 minutes of play. It took him 8 games to find that groove, so this is beautiful inconsistency for my favorite Chris. He was a strong Player of the Game candidate until Jeff Chan happened. Good tragedy.

Brewed Veterans. James Yap and Marc Pingris combined for a good 36 points for San Mig Coffee's own revolution. Yap, who was playing intensely intense for the past 4 games, had 18 points and 6 rebounds, and even threatened the Elasto Painters with his deadly shooting late in the game. Pingris delivered his usual mountain-high performance despite being hurt when he sustained an eye injury from game 4. The former Finals MVP had 18 points and 15 rebounds for the Mixers. SMC fans are sure happy with that.

Quote. "We can not lose our sense of destiny. Even if we're behind, it's not yet over. We have to believe in ourselves and stay positive." - coach Yeng Guiao. This is one fatherly statement from coach Yeng Guiao, who, by the way, received a technical foul for calmly complaining, or maybe, the other way around.

Technical Counter. Speaking of which, Game 5 technical foul count is at 1. 

Bits.

-Joe Devance had 7 points on 3 of 12 shooting night. Yes, the speaker is quiet, so his flat top is way higher than his output. His hair deserved more of those 34 minutes he was on the floor.

-Pingris scored 6 of his 18 points from whamming the rim. Eye injury, what?

-PJ Simon's defense was better than his offense in this game. Want a proof? He has no field goals in 31 minutes, and he blocked 2 shots. See?

-Jeff Chan probably made it up to their back to back missed game changing three's from games 3 and 4.

San Mig Coffee still dictates the series. Game 6 on Wednesday.  

PBA Scenes: Rain or Shine Elasto Painters vs San Mig Super Coffee Mixers Finals Game 2

Best of the Night. San Mig Coffee's team defense really stood out tonight. They weren't shooting well, no one dominated offensively, but their defense did the most talking. In my humble opinion, Rain or Shine can almost sue the Mixers defense right now. They were harassed on national television. The evidence is strong. Anyway, Mixers even the series with an 80-70 win. It wasn't too close the whole game.

Worst of the Night. On the contrary, Rain or Shine's offense is tonight's worst. Jeff Chan led the team with 18 points, followed by Gabe Norwood's 8. All in all, as stated above, the Painters scored 70 points. That's far, far away from their average. Well, if you don't call that bad, then I no longer know what we should call it. Anyway, this is just another proof of the superiority of the Mixers' defense. On the consistent side of things, Chris Tiu had 0 points. C'mon, Chris. That's almost 5 games in a row. Wow.



Sakuragi. Marc Pingris was the best player of the game with 11 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 blocks. He posted those numbers while rotating defense on Raymond Almazan, Beau Belga, Jeff Chan, and Paul Lee. As you can see, he outrebounded his points, had pretty numerous dishes, and marked multiple positions. Right now, it seems like Pingris is the only player who can do that. 



Technical Counter. Game 2 technical fouls: one. In case you missed it, coach Yeng Guiao finally had a technical foul in the finals! They were down big in a game for control and he's got heat. That's a perfect formula for a Yeng Guiao specialty.



Banger. I would like to commend Jerwin Gaco for stirring the perfect formula that I was talking about. In the second quarter, with the Mixers leading by a huge margin, Gaco got physical -this series is physical- with Painters' rookie Raymond Almazan. Of course, as a father, coach Yeng should set examples, and he did! That wasn't good though, as he puked out words that got him T'd up. Gaco kept it cool. Too bad he matched Chris Tiu's output. He might have been best of the night.



Quote. "We didn't shoot that well but we were defending well." - coach Tim Cone. I told you, Mixers' defense stood out in Game 2. That's the story.



Bits.

-We've got awesome blocks in this game including one each from Paul Lee and Mark Barroca.

- This is a pretty nice trivia. Do you know who teaches Marc Pingris' post moves? Richard del Rosario.

-They lost this game, but coach Yeng Guiao said he's not worried. That's good news actually.

-That's it right there. See you on Game 3.




That's on Wednesday, by the way. 8pm.

PBA Scenes: Rain or Shine Elasto Painters vs San Mig Super Coffee Mixers Finals Game1

Best of the Night. 1.6 seconds remain in the fourth quarter. Ballgame tied at 80 apiece. Huddles are heated. One final play. Ball was dead out of bounds. Jeff Chan fakes right then rushed left, drawing a defender. That man just drilled back to back threes. All eyes were on him, all minds were expecting him to finish the game. Then Gabe Norwood threw the inbound, quick, and at the center of the paint. That was far from Jeff Chan. The leather was caught. The man was 6 foot 1, quick, and bald. In a rush, a shot was made easily, and in the open. Rain or Shine win, 82-80. Best of the night should be Paul Lee, Paul Lee's game winner, and Paul Lee giving Rain or Shine a series edge over the Mixers. No questions asked.

Worst of the Night. There are a lot of Chris playing in the PBA, and Chris Tiu is the last Chris standing. He hasn't been the best Chris out there, so being the last one left, he's got that chance to be the best. So did he? Uh, not really. 10 minutes, 3 turnovers, 0 points, and a heck of difficulty escaping Mark Barroca's defense wouldn't do that at all. So apparently, Chris Tiu is STILL the worst and only Chris in the game. At least he's got consistency.

Batman. Jervy Cruz is sick of weird uniform elements and accessories. He's a simple player with a simple get up. Unfortunately, his nose tasted the bitter bone of Alex Cabagnot's elbows. So apparently, he decided to wear a protective mask. Jervy loves to keep it simple, and it became cool. And cool became cooler when he went up for that offensive board and drained the game-tying shot with less than 30 secs remaining earlier. Remember that Paul Lee game winner? That wouldn't have been a game winner if not for Jervy Cruz' heroics. So a big applause for Jervy Cruz and Jervy Cruz's face mask.

Technical Counter. Game 1 technical fouls: One. The only T that's slapped was that final time out called by San Mig Coffee, who actually burnt all of their coolers right before Lee delivered the scissors. Don't let that number fool you, this series is physical as hell.

Speaker of the House. San Mig Coffee sure put up a fight tonight. And Joe Devance sure put up numbers tonight as well. JDV went for 17 points, a couple of big rebounds, a couple of big dishes, and one big flat top. No, that's not Iman Shumpert, boys and girls.

Quote. "We got lucky in the end. We set up the play for Jeff Chan, but it was Paul (Lee) who got open. Good recognition by Gabe Norwood." - coach Yeng Guiao. Be it lucky or perfectly executed, that final play was plain dagger. 

Bits.

-San Mig Coffee is so effective without a real point guard starting the game.

-I'm not sure, but I think Alex Nuyles and Jeric Teng will soon have an explosive exposure in this series.

-Raymond Almazan is already exposed, so nevermind him.

-But Almazan threw down a beastly slam earlier, so let's mind him again. He needs to do that all the time.

-Jeff Chan was on fire in the fourth quarter. That is one bad news for the Mixers in this series.

-Beau Belga is now Rain or Shine's main man. That is two bad news for the Mixers.

-None is in the injured list in this finals. That's good news, right?

-There's no compression shirts in this series. This upsets me up honestly.

-Nothing really exciting about Game 1 when it comes to funny bones. We'll see about that come Game 2.

Game 2 of the Finals will be on Sunday at 4:30pm. Tell your friends.

   

PBA Scenes: Barangay Ginebra San Miguel vs San Mig Super Coffee Mixers Game 7

Best of the Night. The San Mig Super Coffee Mixers, after a rough start to this season, and finishing at 5th seed, have knocked the top seeded Barangay Ginebra San Miguel out, 110-87, setting their dance against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters for the Jun Bernardino hardware. Are you kidding me? No further explanations. Next.

(c) Nuki Sabio/PBA

Worst of the Night. Is there anyone out there who actually thought Ginebra put up a fight? A few maybe. I'm going straight to the point, the league's top seeded team sucked tonight, and they did it at the expense of moving on to the Finals. That wasn't a great timing. So just based on that, Ginebra really stunk.

Big Game. 30 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 3-pointers. Aren't these the numbers James Yap was producing when he won those two MVP's? Yes they are. So tonight, apart from blaming his flames to his weird arm sleeve, Yap is really determined --and inspired-- to bury Ginebra six feet below the shiny and blue Big Dome floor. Anyway, James Yap, after all injuries, and personal infernos, looks fine.

Big First Quarter. If anyone asks you regarding who was the tone setter for this big Mixers win, he might just laugh hard if you happen to say Rafi Reavis' name. But truth hurts, and is funny at the same time. But nothing could take away the truth from that truth, and the truth is Rafi Reavis scored the first 8 points for San Mig Coffee and closed the opening quarter with 12. Of course, he went back to being Rafi and finished the game with 15 points, a couple of big rebounds, three nice fall downs, one thick headband, and two sweaty arm sleeves. 

Golden Mohawk. It's not official, but I think JayJay Helterbrand tried to pay homage to Asi Taulava in game 7. I don't know why, and I don't even know if he actually did, but those are cool threads right there. 

The Apostle. Peter June Simon descipled James Yap's performance with 28 points of his own. The vets have stepped it up really high tonight. Oh well, as they should.

Quote. "Really stunning performance by us. Great shooting! Wow! I didn't do anything, these guys did it all." - coach Tim Cone. Even coach Tim couldn't believe how his team shot lights tonight.

Bits.

-Ginebra has set two PBA game attendance records. One was tonight. They lost both games. It's funny.

-24,883 gate attendance is a pretty huge number. Too bad, San Mig dropped the bombs, so there are lots of casualties. Puns.

-Mark Caguioa should have played that way from the beginning... of the season!

-You know what's higher than San Mig's morale right now? Joe Devance's flat top.

-Have you seen Justin Melton's pregame locker room dance? I won't attempt if I were you.

-I still believe Rafi Reavis was best player tonight.

Oh well, this ends the semifinals chapter of the PBA Scenes. But don't panic, a lot more is coming! The Finals chapter starts on Friday! The PBA All Filipino Cup Finals starts on Friday! That should be an awesome Friday the 14th! Now go tell your dateless friends to watch!

PBA Scenes: Barangay Ginebra San Miguel vs San Mig Super Coffee Mixers Game 6

Best of the Night. Aside from the intensity of tonight's game itself, we are all in for a treat in 48 hours.  8pm on Wednesday, we are going to have a Manila Clasico that would corral everything that matter, hang them on the line, and blast a game for everything that these two teams have been working for. It is not here yet, but my best of the night is the fact that San Mig Coffee and Ginebra will all be pitted once more for an all important Game 7. Now you can go tell your friends.  

(c) Nuki Sabio/PBA

Worst of the Night. After a game like that? Duh, there's none!

Outworked Win. For about 45 minutes, San Mig Coffee outplayed, outrebounded, and outhustled Ginebra. The number of turnovers and rebounds tell the story of those 45 minutes, but, unfortunately for the Mixers, not the dying seconds. Ginebra beat San Mig Coffee, 94-91, and as I have said, we're all in for a 7th game in this Manila Clasico semifinals.   

Great Amount of Spark. I am well aware that Greg Slaughter had a huge night tonight. But I have to disagree that the giant rookie carried Ginebra solely to the win. The past few games, coach Ato Agustin seemed to have fallen inloved with utilizing Slaughter and Japeth Aguilar to help them win games. But that combination didn't worked that much in the postseason. So earlier, Mark Caguioa decided to take matters to his own hands and reclaim his reign of the country's most popular team. The Spark scored 21 points, most of which helped them climb back from being down 14 at some point in the first half. Greg Slaughter strode the finishing kick, but Caguioa, as far as this game is concerned, manned their resurrection.



Bounce. LA Tenorio is one bouncy point guard, so he just bounced back. 

Words From Worski. Ginebra legend and PBA all-time great Robert Jaworski was in the sidelines watching the game, just because, you know, he's Robert Jaworski. And it was also for that same reason that he crashed into Ginebra's locker room to deliver words for the team endangered of being eliminated. I'm pretty sure it was nothing compared to Ric Flair's flare at the 49ers locker room, but somehow, Jaworski's presence may have factored the release of Ginebra's "Never Say Die" hormones.

Sakuragi. Marc Pingris have done it again. They lost though, but he managed to pull out his inner and beastly Marc Pingris in the second half. Ping dropped majority of his 20 points from one step teardrops from the paint, which obviously brought trouble to Slaughter's reputation on the defensive end. By the way, those 20 points I'm talking about, they're Marc  Pingris' season high.

Quote. "Game 7, sa amin yan." -- Marc Pingris. These ain't bold words at all. These are determined words.



Bits.

-Rafi Reavis scored more than Justin Melton, Joe Devance, Jayjay Helterbrand, Chris Ellis, and JR Reyes. He's still kickin' it out, with a sick headband.

-James Yap equalled Reavis' production, so Rafi really did a great job out there.

-Speaking of James Yap, he had a really good and long, long, long look at the basket on that final play. Well at least no inner Arwind got involved.

-"No comment"- James Yap's comment on that crucial foul called on him that put Caguioa on the line.

-Mark Caguioa converted those two lead-taking freethrows.

-Slaughter was wearing LeBron XI Gamma Blues earlier. He might have stole it from that huge San Mig guy with the no.5 jersey.





Game 7 Wednesday, 8pm. We all know what to do.

    

PBA Scenes: Barangay Ginebra San Miguel vs San Mig Super Coffee Mixers Semifinals Game 5

Best of the Night. It's unbelievable how James "Washed Up" Yap has been so powerful in the past two games. He topped his team in scoring in their game 4 loss, then lifted San Mig Coffee over the Barangay earlier, 79-76, with a crunchtime three. It was a little bit premature, considering that Yap is just having a 7-point afternoon prior to unleashing his rainbow dagger, but it went all the way through, so all negatives had been eliminated. The Super Coffee Mixers lead their series 3 games to 2, and James Yap, with 10 points and an all important finishing kick, is my best of the night.

(c) Nuki Sabio/PBA

Worst of the Night. Sometimes when teams are down by three with about 7 seconds remaining, their best guys call on every saint, and summon all kinds of miraculous spirits they know to help them salvage a game. It was odd, but LA Tenorio decided to forget every saint, and summon his inner Arwind Santos by going all the way to the basket despite being down 3 in the dying seconds. I personally don't know what Tenorio's mindset was, but it was that mental lapse that cost them the game, and eventually putting Ginebra in a twice to beat disadvantage.

Air Force. For the past two games, the best scorers are ending up with the losing team. Chris Ellis had 20 points, including a game-tying and a tie-breaking shots down the stretch. He was in the zone in the fourth quarter, and was all swaggy in the whole game. They lost though, so all positives had been eliminated.

Triangle Defense. I just need to mention this because it's amazing and it's tough to break. San Mig Coffee's defense has been superb in the postseason. How superb? Well, they are about to eliminate the conference's top seeded team.

Quote. "You get caught up in the moment. I wasn't also sure if we're up by two or three. LA's one of the smartest players I've been around with." -- coach Tim Cone. In the sport of basketball, losing focus by being caught up in the moment is a fact. And if it was an all-time great basketball coach who mentioned your name among the smartest players in the league, any end game lapse can be excused once in a while. 

Bits.

-Tenorio is one bouncy point guard, so I think he'll bounce back in the next 2 games.

-That's right, this series will go all the way. I'm hoping I was right.

-Ginebra's big men are hurt. Rumors, so chill.

-Rafi Reavis scored the first 2 points of the game, that alone signaled how strange the game would go.

-It's pretty amazing how the TV screen would shake everytime a team scores. Thrilling.

-Money Ball is still annoying as hell. Include the fact that I can not download that app.

Oh well, Game 6 is Monday.

For now, let's flap some birds. LOL.