Potential clinchers

The finalists of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Samsung Governors Cup will be known tonight – if San Miguel Beer and Purefoods win.

Both the Beermen and the Tender Juicy Hot Dogs are a victory away from advancing to the best-of-7 titles playoffs. But don’t count out Alaska and Coca-Cola. The Aces are a proud squad rich in championship tradition. Coach Tim Cone isn’t about to throw in the towel, especially since San Miguel’s Lamont Strothers appears to be slipping. Neither is Tigers coach Chot Reyes ready to raise the white flag.

The San Miguel-Alaska series is one for the books. In three semifinal games so far, neither team has scored more than 72 points. They’re beating each other black and blue with defense. It’s no wonder. San Miguel is playing without leading scorers Danny Seigle. Danny Ildefonso, and Olsen Racela – seconded to the national pool. Throw in Dondon Hontiveros, too. Alaska also lost Kenneth Duremdes to the pool. So San Miguel interim coach Siot Tanquingcen and Alaska’s Tim Cone did the intelligent thing to compensate for the lack of firepower – they reoriented their team focused to defense.

In San Miguel’s nine Governors Cup wins, the Beermen limited their opponents to an average of 67.1 points. No team has scored more than 75 points against San Miguel and won. In contrast, San Miguel surrendered an average of 73.9 points in its seven losses. The differential is significant.

It’s the same situation for Alaska. In the Aces’ eight wins, they’ve held their opponents to an average of 60.1 points. Talk about suffocating defense. No team has scored more than 71 points against Alaska and won. In contrast, Alaska yielded an average of 77.9 points in its seven setbacks. That’s a 17.8-point defensive gap between winning and losing.

Conclusion? San Miguel and Alaska win with defense. That’s why it’s been a low-scoring series. No blowouts. No squad has shot 50 percent or more in the three contests. The teams keep the game close then go for the jugular down the stretch. Which explains why the games has been thrillers. Remember that Game 2 went into overtime. t’s curtains for the team that blinks under pressure.

Because defense is the thing, it’s critical that the coaches shuffle their players like a card shark. Pacing is vital. Playing tough defense means making a lot of contact and that translates into fouls. Besides, the grueling grind will leave players huffing and puffing in the end if they’re not paced. The stamina factor will also be a key.

Strothers has been quiet the last two outings. Last Sunday, he was a weak link in offense, missing all four free throws, and connecting on only 2-of-8 attempts from the floor. But he did other things to make up. Strothers grabbed seven rebounds, had three steals, and dished off two assists. Four locals logged more minutes than Strothers but still, San Miguel prevailed because its defense clicked, holding Alaska to a 35 percent clip from the floor.

Strothers, however, isn’t expected to walk away with a whimper. He’ll be back with a vengeance in Game 4 tonight and Cone must be prepared to weather the storm.

In the other series, it’s offense versus defense. Purefoods like to pile up the points. In its 11 wins, the Hot Dogs averaged 84.8 points. In its four losses, they averaged 73.3. Clearly, Purefoods wins when it’s lighting up the boards. Coca-Cola, on the other hand, thrives on defense like San Miguel and Alaska. In their 10 wins, the Tigers limited their opponents to an average of 70.7 points. In their five losses, they gave up 87.4 points a game. Again, the difference is startling.

Purefoods dictated the tempo in the first two games and won, 89-86 and 84-75. But Coca-Cola tightened up its defense in Game 3 and carved out a 77-72 decision. Rosell Ellis shadowed Derrick Brown from start to finish as he showed what had to be done for the Tigers to repulse the Hot Dogs. Ellis sacrified his offense – he netted only 14 points – to get the job done defensively.

A big factor in both series is the presence of a local who can defend against an import because it allows an import teammate to preserve his energies for offense. That’s what makes Dorian Pena or Nic Belasco so valuable.