Bitter loss to Dragons bared flaws in Beermen

MANILA, Philippines - Their cloak of invincibility torn to shreds by an upset-conscious Westports Malaysia Dragons, the fancied San Miguel Beermen go back to the drawing board to get their bid off and running after a shaky debut in the ASEAN Basketball League.

Most especially since for assignment No. 2, they are taking on an equally tough rival in AirAsia Philippine Patriots on Saturday, six days since dropping a 77-83 overtime shocker to the Dragons in Kuala Lumpur.

“I think we’re going to learn from that loss (to Dragons),” said SMB coach Bobby Parks, who ordered a resumption of practice today after giving the players a break following their long flight back from Malaysia yesterday.

“We just have to get to work and we have a tough game this Saturday. I know the Phl Patriots are laying and waiting for us so there are some things we need to fix on our defense and offense that we’ll work on this week,” Parks said.

One glaring shortcoming in that heartbreaking loss was the Beermen’s failure to stop Dragons’ reinforcements Tiras Wade (28 points and six rebounds) and Brian Williams (26 points) who dropped huge numbers that aided their come-from-behind win.

In contrast, SMB imports Darlon Johnson (17 points six rebounds and six assists) and Richard Jeter (11 points, two rebounds) turned in rather lackluster output, hastening the Beermen’s downfall.

Import matchup, according to Parks will play a big role in most of the games so it’s imperative for reinforcements to step up big time and the team as a whole to put the cuffs on the opposing imports.

“That’s (imports) going to be a lot of deciding factor in games here in the ABL. The team that has good Filipino players, it’s going to come down to the imports. Some of the imports can off-balance the teams,” said Parks, a legendary reinforcement himself during his PBA years.

“We have to do a better job of containing imports next time,” he added.

The locals, of course, should also do their thing and like Parks said after the Dragons game, they should “deliver at the exact time when the team needs them.”