Caguioa says defense will decide finale

MANILA, Philippines — For veteran Mark Caguioa, the PBA Governors Cup finals won’t be a battle between Ginebra’s offense and Meralco’s defense. Even if the stats show Ginebra typically wins when a game is high-scoring and Meralco wins when it’s low-scoring, the Spark said the best-of-7 series will be decided by defense.

“I think we’re a better defensive team,” said Caguioa. “Meralco’s hungry. We all saw how they played those last two games against TNT in the semis. They’re a very dangerous team, very tough to beat.  But we’re ready. We can’t take a night off on defense. Coach Tim (Cone) will scream and yell if we don’t play defense as hard as we should, whether at practice or during a game. He’ll remind us. We’ve got to be at our best to beat Meralco. It will come down to defense versus defense.”

Caguioa, 40, isn’t new to winning championships. Since breaking into the league as Ginebra’s first round pick (third overall behind Willie Miller and Mike Hrabak) in 2001, he has played on seven championship teams, the last in the 2018 Commissioner’s Cup. As Ginebra’s senior statesman, his role has changed from when he was Rookie of the Year and 2012 MVP.

“I haven’t been playing a lot of minutes lately,” said Caguioa. “I see my role as getting my guys ready mentally. I’ll help the guys at practice and if my number is called during a game, I’ll be ready to contribute. I still get goosebumps when the fans chant my name. I remember in a recent game, I pulled my hamstring kasi binigla ko ang laro but even kung pa-ika-ika ako, the fans really inspired me. If I can play another year, it’ll be awesome. My goal is to reach 20 years in the PBA so that’s one more season.”

Caguioa said it’ll be a challenge to turn back the Bolts in the finals. “I told my teammates we’ve got to treat every game like a Game 7 because that’s Meralco’s mentality,” he said. “Put yourself in their shoes. They’ve lost to us twice in the finals so they’re feeling a sense of urgency. No way they’ll let us beat them thrice in a row. They’ll play like their backs are against the wall in every game, starting in Game 1. We’ve got to be ready for their charge. This is serious. I’ve watched their games all conference long. Every game they lost, they had a chance to win. Baser (Amer) and Chris (Newsome) are more experienced now. Bong (Quinto) isn’t playing like a rookie. He has no fear and reminds me of how I was when I was a rookie.”

Caguioa said while Allen Durham is unstoppable, Justin Brownlee is Justin Brownlee. “You’ve got Jordan, Kobe, LeBron then you’ve got Brownlee,” he said. “That’s how I see Justin. He’s a different breed. He makes playing the game look easy. I’ve never played with anyone who plays better than he does. When you need him to deliver, he’ll be ready. J. B. can turn it on at any time. But Durham is tough, too. We need two or three guys to defend him but we can’t do that because Durham has the eye to find the open man. We’ve got the advantage in size with Japeth (Aguilar), Greg (Slaughter) and J. B. but they’ve added Raymond (Almazan) who can space the floor for them. Meralco does the little things, their guys get open, they trust each other. So we’ve got to be on the ball defensively to stop them.”

Caguioa said he expects a long series. “This is going to go to a Game 6 or 7,” he said. “Playing in the Philippine Arena will be awesome if it goes to a Game 6 or 7. But if we can end it in four or five, we’ll do it. I think this will be an exciting series for the fans.” Game 1 is set at the Smart Araneta Coliseum tomorrow.