Ginebra wills itself to victory over Smart Gilas, reaches Finals
Everything that worked in Ginebra's favor in their two wins didn't go their way today-- which is basically all import Nate Brumfield who had a tough time battling in the paint with a clearly driven Marcus Douthit (who was saddled by fouls all night long). So, they went with their other strength-- a much more driven and focused Mark Caguioa paired with a renaissance performance of sorts from Mike Cortez.
Cortez did everything right for the Gin Kings, controlling the tempo and even making sure to give up fouls when needed to stop Smart Gilas' running attack (something most of today's point guards-- even L.A. Tenorio and Jimmy Alapag, so often fail to do). Had Cortez made his patented "dribble drive, bang bodies with a big and make a lay-up with right hand fully extended away from his body to kiss the ball off the glass" move that he tried in the fourth, I would've searched the net for YouTube highlights of his DLSU days.
Caguioa forced a couple of shots early, but never forgot to drive the ball inside the lane. Ronald Tubid, who I saw earlier at Edsa Shangri-La, Manila with his family for its Easter Jungle Tangles event, kept SG at bay with his timely threes (was waiting for a putback dunk the whole night) and even the unpredictable Willie Miller came through with some clutch and-one baskets.
Brumfield, well, the guy's a soldier. While SG head coach Rajko Toroman was able to solve Brumfield's "isolation bulldozer" play by throwing in guards from both sides to ruin the Ginebra import's driving lane, Brumfield still did his job by playing straight up defense on the taller Douthit.
Other names that should be commended are Rudy Hatfield: for his energy, and Willy Wilson (who came in to play some hard-nosed D on Mac Baracael and even Japeth Aguilar at times).
As for Smart Gilas-- they achieved what they needed to this conference.
They won over the PBA fans with their style of play, made household names of their promising stars such as Chris Tiu (rebounding clutch guard), Mac Baracael (future PBA star), Aldrech Ramos (could turn out to be Kerby Raymundo 2.0) and Japeth Aguilar (sideshow dunker) AND earned a year's worth of elbows, ticky-tack fouls and what not.
To sum it all up, the series was decided by the simple fact that Ginebra played like an NBA team, while Smart Gilas played like a FIBA one. Only problem of course, is that the PBA is patterned after the NBA. Do the math.
In international tournaments, there are no Mark Caguioas who drive into the lane with reckless abandon-- only precision ball movement, jumpshots and post-up plays. These are areas that SG has definitely improved on. For this team to win, it wouldn't hurt if they allowed Andy Barroca, who was a key driver of their offense a year ago and their only known slasher, with more time on the floor.
Anyway, that being said, let's see if Ginebra can succeed where its sister team failed in the previous conference: beating Talk N Text.
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