WITH back-to-back wins it had scored decisively in Games 2 & 3, can San Miguel Beer (SMB) maintain momentum and proceed to terminate TNT Katropa’s title dreams?
A 2-1 SMB lead can be a championship-changer anytime, the Beermen bent on imposing their will all the more on the now-beleaguered TNT Katropa Texters.
For TNT to bring its ego back and tie, hopefully, the best-of-seven PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals at 2-2, it must first resuscitate the old fire of RR Pogoy, whose hot hands produced 27 points as the Texters took Game 1, 104-102.
But, alas, in Games 2 & 3, Pogoy was scoreless despite numerous minutes given him again on the court, a meltdown so grievous that the rookie instantly got the ugly tag “one-hit wonder.”
Even Jason Castro and import Joshua Smith, Pogoy’s co-heroes in Game 1, became non-factors in the last two games amid the Beermen’s impunity in both defense and offense to score successive shutouts.
While “pricked pride” fueled SMB’s comeback from 17 points to rout TNT in Game 2, the Beermen’s Game 3 victory was yet another work of art in contrast to the Texters’ terrible truncated form of turnover-prone offense.
Now, if Katropa will still cling on to the injured Smith on Wednesday night, expect another evening of ballroom fare by the Beermen—with SMB coach Leo Austria’s faultless choreography doing wonders anew.
For, how can TNT hope to perform so well with its import dancing on just one healthy foot?
Movies are fiction but title-hunting men are fact.
In short, my dear TNT coach Nash Racela, this isn’t reel but real.
THAT’S IT If Manny Pacquiao fails to knock out Jeff Horn on Sunday (July 2) in Brisbane, Australia, the least the Fighting Senator could do is to beat the former schoolteacher to a pulp. Pride, bebe. If Pacquiao can’t do either of the two, I think it’s really time for him to call it quits. Because Pacquiao is 50 fights (67-17) ahead of Horn and is 27 knockouts (38-11) up on the obscure Aussie as well, I see no reason why he can’t win even with his one hand tied behind his back. Likewise, a Pacquiao loss would render the fight from a “Stroll in The Park” for PacMan to the “Shock of The Century” for Horn. Should the “Horn Shock” happen, Pacquiao could be really that old at 38 (Horn is 29). Or, Pacquiao had not trained that well, his training regimen derailed by his Senate duties? Now, if Pacquiao is in tip-top shape, as he should be, he should easily dispose the challenger in five rounds. As the late, lamented Hermie Rivera would say, “Lunch?”