The Final Score: Alaska enters PBA Finals Slowly but Surely

All series long, Talk 'N Text tried to set a tempo more suitable to their nimble line-up. Alaska, however, wouldn't budge. So in Game 7, while Talk 'N Text Head Coach Chot Reyes was all dressed up to disco, Alaska Head Coach Tim Cone, sporting his ubiquitous slacks and necktie, was set for the prom. By starting Game 7 with Jared Dillinger, Kelly Williams, Aaron Aban and Jason Castro, the Tropang Texters' intention seemed obvious: let's break-dance. By using just eight men, Alaska's game-plan suggested something else: let's stroll. It was like watching an awkward dance. The guy wanted to boogie. The girl wanted to waltz.


Alaska import Diamon Simpson took the most number of attempts in Game 7. The ball in Simpson's hands meant Alaska was using painstaking effort to look for a shot. The longer Alaska had the ball, the slower the game got, the more frustrated the Tropang Texters became. Talk ‘N Text had three fast-break opportunities in the first quarter. Alaska had none, most likely by choice. Simpson had 10 points in the first period; just two points shy of Talk N Text’s 12 in the opening quarter.

“They look unbeatable if they’re going to play their type of game," Cone said at the start of the series. “But if you’ll play against them, not playing their type of game, then they’re mortal."

Talk N Text was mortal enough to consider changing imports in the middle of the series, mortal enough to post just 86 points per game in the Semis. The league’s top offensive team in the elimination round just couldn’t get Alaska to groove to the Texters’ beat. The PBA’s Jabbawockeez were forced to tune it down, take it slow.

Alaska wasn’t the type to street-dance. Reyes knew it all along.

To combat the urge to boogie in Game 7, Cone used just three guys off the bench: Larry Fonacier, Reynel Hugnatan and Mark Borboran. I suspect, in real life, they don’t moonwalk. Like steel pipes thrown into a well-tuned machine, or lanky 6-footers, with arms flailing, legs intruding, thrust into a dance troupe, Fonacier, Hugnatan and Borboran disrupted the Texters’ repertoire of penetrations and kick-out passes.

“Defensively they do a good job on us," Reyes shared prior to Game 1. “They slow the game down. They cut down our number of possessions. So that’s why we need to speed the game up. But they’re very disciplined. I doubt if they’re going to engage us in a running battle."

Two hours before Game 7, I entered the Araneta Coliseum and saw Reyes. He held his kaleidoscope shirt on a hanger. I normally would’ve said something about the shirt. He normally would’ve had a witty comeback. But the anxiety on Chot’s face, the absence of any pre-game swagger, made me keep my mouth shut. Perhaps, like most average guys going to the prom, he sensed and maybe even knew that getting lucky that night, against the potent prude, was going to be a long shot.

Source: GmaNews