Convincing enough? (In Retrospect 23)

THIS week was a tale of three teams who exhibited the best, the worst and ultimately, what’s to come, as this writer perceives it.

The Purefoods Chunkee Giants now stand atop the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup team standings. Not only are the Giants beating opponents to the pulp, but tightening up on the defensive end. In their 91-73 win over Alaska, Purefoods made more than half of their shots while limiting a deliberate Aces quintet to 38.6 percent shooting from the field.

Five days later, coach Ryan Gregorio’s troops trampled Red Bull in a rematch of last conference’s championship series, 93-80. Noteworthy was how the Giants managed to stop Red Bull’s vaunted transition game, limiting the league’s top-ranked fastbreaking squad to just 9 points.

Gregorio was quoted to have told his wards that they have to live up to their billing as the league’s “best defensive team.” Going by the numbers, they’re number one in opponents field goal percentage (36.9 percent) and opponents points per game (77.5). So far, the Chunkee Giants are proving me wrong (They were nowhere near my preseason top four).

However, I am not backing down from my earlier assessment. I have my doubts about Purefoods. First and foremost, the Giants aren’t shooting the ball well. Last conference, they led the league in field goal shooting. Last conference as well, the top two seeds heading into the playoffs were the two best shooting teams after the classification round. In the Philippine Cup, Purefoods is ranked 5th.

This is partly due to the fact that the team does not have a true point guard running the offense and setting plays. Paul Artadi and Egay Billones aren't starting lineup-caliber players, and their reliance on a point guard by committee will hurt them in the long run.

Also, the Giants haven’t won an “ugly” game. They’ve won all four of their games by double-digits at an average of 16 points. While this is indicative of their dominance, the gods of mathematics, or laws of average, or a combination of both, will see Purefoods figure in a close match. Also, not all four wins were necessarily a product of the Giants’ brilliance (Ginebra scored a season-low 56 points, while one of the four teams they beat was the lethargic Sta. Lucia Realtors).

Meanwhile, one of the squads that impressed me in the pre-season, the Coca Cola Tigers, is mired in a two-game losing streak. After getting trampled by the Talk N Text Phone Pals, 100-82, the Tigers lost a close 84-81 decision to Barangay Ginebra.

After looking at both of Coca Cola’s losses this week, only one common denominator emerges. The Tigers just couldn’t find the bottom of the net. And frankly, this is the glaring weakness of coach Binky Favis’ wards. Towards the end of their four-game winning streak, the team was already struggling to find offensive options. Now, they have to go back to the drawing board, and execute more efficiently, especially in the half court, to pave the way for the shots guys like John Arigo, Ali Peek and Dale Singson used to sink.

As for the only team that lost both their games this week, what’s new? The Sta. Lucia Realtors’ two losses, a 100-89 defeat at the hands of San Miguel and a 113-100 drubbing from Air21, follow the same pattern. In both games, the Realtors actually found themselves leading in the fourth quarter. Their fold-ups can be attributed to a horrible execution of a 2-3 zone that has become so easy to break.

Coach Alfrancis Chua has expressed his intent to turn the Realtors into a running team. By the looks of it, they resemble a poor man’s version of the Air21 Express.

Also during the week, Red Bull outgunned the Express in a battle of the league’s top two fastbreaking quintets, 112-98.

Stats of the week: Against Purefoods, leading Rookie of the Year contender Larry Fonacier went 0 for 8 shooting in 22 minutes of play…In that same game, Chunkee Giant and former University of Sto. Tomas Growling Tiger Richard Yee registered a career-high 19 points…Alaska set an obvious season-low for fastbreak points in a game against the Giants, 0 points…Air21’s Yancy de Ocampo grabbed a career-high 22 rebounds in Isabela versus Sta. Lucia.