FINALS HEAT UP GOING INTO GAME 4
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 21 Feb 2014
The first to blink loses.
This was the story in Game 3 of the best-of-seven series between San Mig Coffee and Rain or Shine Wednesday to decide which team will be the Philippine Basketball Association 39th Season's Philippine Cup titleholder.
In a game where Elasto Painters were the domineering figures in the first three quarters, leading by as many as 10 points at one time in the second period, it was coach Yeng Guiao's charges who folded up against the Coffee Mixers' game-long surge gifting the Mixers a nail-biting 77-76 triumph and a 2-1 series lead.
Still trailed, 72-69, the Mixers took the upper hand for good on the strength of an 8-2, finishing touches, going into the final three minutes, six of them by the indefatigable Joe de Vance, 77-74, before coach Tim Cone's boys applied a paralyzing defense that allowed the painters a measly two points the rest of the way.
De Vance himself presided over the Mixers' stonewall defense with a steal at the last 2:00 minute mark then forced Jervi Cruz into another costly miscue that stalled the Painters' last ditch attempts to turn the game in their favor.
Jeff Chan's missed three-point heave as the buzzer sounded ended the Painters' bid to themselves lead tdhe series going into today's Game 4 at 8 p.,m. also at the Araneta Coliseum.
Five deadlocks and 18 lead changes punctuated the tightly contested encounter with no team succeeding in posting more than seven points except in the lasts 1:35 mark of the second quarter where the Painters set what looked like a comfortable 39-29 bubble, which the Mixers readily wiped out with a pair of three-point shots by PJ Simon and an offense-oriented sentinel Alex Mallari who brought San Mig to within a breath, 38-39 at lemon time.
"It's an awesome game and it's fun to be part of," Cone murmured during the usual post-game press conference. "It's tough on their part."
The two three-point shots we made before the half was really the key,|" he said. "the they came out in the second half (where) they looked a house on fire."
"We kept ways to stay in the game until it came down to the last few possessions," Cone recalled expressing concerns though as to his Mixers physical condition comes today's Game 4.
"Guys showed a little fatigue (so we ) gotta try to find our second wind. James gave us enough of an edge keepin's us in there," he said in reference to James Yap's 11-point binge in the third quarter. Yap, who admitted still; being bothered by his back spasm injury and whose elbow sin his shooting right arm still wrapped, was responsible for the Mixers coming from a 52-44 deficit and stayed at safe distance, 61-64, at the end of the third.
So tight was the Mixers' defensive dragnet built around Mark Barroca, who was unrelenting in hounding Pal Lee all evening, Raffi Reaves and rookie Ian Sangalang against the Painters' offensive threats.
oOo
NOTES: Several seasons ago, the PBA dispensed with the battle for third place.... A few seasons ago, too, the lone contest for the championship hardly fill the league's acknowledged home, the Araneta Coliseum, or elsewhere ..... Except when crowd-favorite Barangay Barangay is playing in the gold medal series ..... The on-going Philippine Cup best-of-seven title series could have filled the playing venue to the rafter had the league revived the race for the bronze medal, which could have pitted the Gin Kings against sister team Petron Blaze Boosters .... This was especially true during the semifinal series between the Kings and Mixers when both venues, Araneta and the Mall of Asia Arena seemed the only games basketball-crazy Filipinos only want to watch .... Bakit nga kaya hindi maibalik yung laro para sa pangatlong puwesto? This has been the question many PBA fanatics would to know..... The PBA, after all owes it to the fans to allow them to watch a doubleheader which they used to enjoy in the first three and-a-half decades of the league's existence ... Kapag dalawa ang laro, ma semifinal man o final, siyempre mas marami ang manonood, Mang Andres, a taxi driver told this writer one time. .... Every time a season opened, the PBA brass always paid tribute to media as partners on why the country's and Asia's first pro-league has and continues to become the Filipinos' favorite sports-entertainment show .... After the traditional season-opening press conference though, especially lately, media men covering the games couldn't feel the league's concern for their welfare .... From the time of the late commissioners Leo Prieto and Rudy Salud and even the watch of Jun Bernardino, the press row was located in front immediately facing the playing court .... One genius of a commissioner (not the present Kume Chito Salud) moved the press at the back of the south basket along with team fanatics, including the shouting, shrieking members of the third sex ... Then to the upper box and lower box .... Starting with the final game of the Ginebra-San Mig semis showdown, the press was again moved under the south basket with no working table, prompting one sportswriter to comment: "Sa Second Conference, saan kaya tayo itatapon? "Baka alisin na completedy ang press row at doon na lang sa press room," one other quipped.
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