Casio returns, but TNT still comes out on top
The Powerade Tigers welcomed back JV Casio, but the crack point guard's return was not enough as the Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters got the breaks in the end game and won, 102-96, to take a big 2-0 lead in the PBA Philippine Cup finals.
Casio missed Game 1 with a hamstring injury, and without his shooting and playmaking TNT strolled to a 16-point win. He put up 17 points, including five triples, last night, but reigning MVP Jimmy Alapag outperformed him with 23 points in just 27 minutes, including a big triple with 1:19 left that gave TNT a 99-93 lead and all but iced the game.
Before Alapag's big three, the Tigers were in the midst of another one of their furious comebacks. Down by 12, 92-80, they dropped a 13-2 bomb that made it just a one-point game with 2:54 remaining. They were one defensive stop away from having a shot at taking the lead, and had already pressured TNT to use up most of its shot clock when Rommel Adducul poked the ball from Ali Peek. Under normal circumstances, that should have already translated into a steal or a 24-second shot clock violation, but Larry Fonacier was at the right place at the right time, swooping in for a lay-up and a 96-93 TNT lead with 2:05 left.
"Hulog ng langit," was how Powerade assistant coach Ricky Dandan described Fonacier's basket.
Peek then blocked Casio's drive, setting up Alapag's back-breaking three. Casio tried to reply but missed his own triple, and after Jayson Castro three the ball away to keep Powerade's slim hopes alive, Ryan Reyes came up with a steal and fastbreak lay-up to doom Powerade's chances.
TNT coach Chot Reyes knew Casio's return would make life more difficult for the defending champions, and said it was no surprise that Gary David notched another 30-point game with the rookie point guard back in harness. In Game 1, David was held to only 19 points.
"What JV Casio does is he allows Gary David to score a lot of points," Reyes said. "It's a privilege to have a courtside seat to a Gary David special. I mean, you can't stop him. So all we need to do, I kept telling the guys in the huddle, 'Let's just withstand it. Let's make sure the other players don't get their points.' Gary got his 30, but I thought we did a good job on the other players. That's a big step for us in this series."
Powerade's own version of the Big Three combined for 62 points, while center Doug Kramer had 14, but Adducul was the only significant bench contributor with nine points and six boards. But Bo Perasol was still encouraged by what he saw, pointing out that the breaks just didn't go their way with the game on the line.
"It was tough that they made some tough shots at the end," Perasol noted. "We were trying to make a run. We just have to be better next game. We have to give it to Talk 'N Text for really shooting well. But I'm quite sure that we are going to be better by Wednesday. All we need is one win and then we're on it right away."
TNT converted 12 three-point shots, but it wasn't the volume so much as the timing of some of them that kept Powerade at bay. Aside from Alapag's clutch three, Jayson Castro also came up with two big baskets — one to end the third period which answered Marcio Lassiter's own trifecta, and another at the start of the fourth as a reply to Celino Cruz's triple which had cut TNT's lead to only three and which sparked a 9-0 run.
His team having just essayed a come-from-behind semifinal series win over rival Petron, Reyes wasn't about to write finis to Powerade's title chances and said they had to be prepared for what he called the Tigers' "mightiest fightback" in Game 3 tomorrow.
"We've seen this so many times. Last game all we did was take a 1-0 lead. Now all we did was get two. We still need to get two more. So all we did was take another step towards our ultimate objective. We can't relax, we can't take our foot off the pedal at all. We gotta make sure we're ready for what I think is gonna be Powerade's mightiest fightback in Game 3.
"When we were down 1-3, sabi ko habang may buhay, may pag-asa. Matatapos lang ito kapag may isang team na naka-four. We really don't want to think about anything else right now but the next 48 minutes, the next play, the next possession. We need to discipline our minds and think that way and not get ahead of ourselves."
Despite being in a 0-2 hole, Perasol still believes his team has a date with destiny.
"It really does not matter if we're 0-2 or 0-3," he said. "For as long as we still have that chance, we're going to keep on fighting. I really think we have a special reason why we are here, and if destiny would have wanted a stronger team to be here, B-Meg would have been here."
Still, Perasol knows his team must have more to hang their collective hat on than just talk about destiny. The Tropa pose serious match-up problems for the smaller Tigers, with an imposing frontline rotation of Peek, Kelly Williams, Harvey Carey, Ranidel De Ocampo, and - when he feels like playing — Japeth Aguilar. Their overall bench depth is also a big problem or the Tigers, who have had to play David, Lassiter and Casio major minutes just to keep in step.
"Knowing our match-up problems with them, I told my players we have to make sure we understand what took us here, and that is understanding what we do best," Perasol said. "They know that our Big Three is going to be there all the time, our support group is going to be fighting all the time."
E-mail: sid_ventura@yahoo.com.
