Taulava happy buy not contented with Air21′s semis stint
Asi Taulava is not happy about their Game 5 loss to the San Mig Super Coffee Mixers. Although he is satisfied with his Air21’s performance in the conference, the ageless warrior knows they could still be better.
While other forty-somethings would take a trip out of the country or maybe play a round of golf in Baguio to relax during their vacations, Taulava will be spending his short break in the gym, punishing his body to further extend his career.
“If coach tells me to take more days off, I’ll take more days off,” Taulava said after Game 5. “But I want to stay in shape and I want to be ready come the third conference. I want to guide this team to the finals.”
Without a vital cog in their system in Sean Anthony, the Express were still able to win Game 4 against the Mixers to force a do-or-die match. But in the most important game for the Express, the Mixers’ experience made all the difference.
Asi Taulava battles James Mays (PBA/Nuki Sabio)
“It was a great learning experience for us, seeing how it is to compete in a game like that against San Mig Coffee,” Taulava said. “Marc [Pingris], James [Yap], Mark [Barroca], PJ []simon, I love all of those guys. I can see the fire in their eyes. We tried to match them step for step but we just fell short tonight.”
“I’m just so proud of our guys. Nobody expected us to be here, taking San Mig Coffee to Game 5. We wanted to get over that hump but we fell short. We’ll come back stronger in the next conference,” Taulava added.
In Game 5, Taulava played an astounding 43 minutes. Other players his age could not play at his level for 10 minutes. But Taulava battled against San Mig Super Coffee import James Mays like he was half his age. He fought for rebounds and defended the Mixers’ bigs. Their import Wesley Witherspoon led the team in scoring with 21 but Taulava was not far behind with 20 points and 12 rebounds.
The two however did not get enough help from the rest of the Express.
“My teammates, I love them, I would not trade them for anything. But now we have more responsibility,” Taulava said. “We can’t go back to being a mediocre team. We want to live up to the expectations of our fans right now. We don’t want to let them down in the third conference.”
“I will be in better shape by the time we start the third conference. I don’t want to miss any games. I want to go out there and compete. I want to make another great run,” Taulava closed. “There’s no time for me to just sit down and feel good because we made it to the semis. We just got to be ready to do it again and do it better next time.”
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