San Mig Super Coffee over Ginebra, 110-87
The Best: Teamwork trumped talent. That’s what happened last night as the Mixers outclassed the Gin Kings in almost every possible way. Behind awesome spacing and ball distribution, coach Tim Cone’s wards executed their game plan to a T, finding people in their sweet spots all game long. Two guys, in particular, benefitted from this greatly — Rafi Reavis and Ian Sangalang. All too often during the game, both Reavis and Sangalang found themselves open close to the basket, mainly because of two things — SMC’s great spacing and Ginebra’s failure to adjust. Reavis scored 12 of his 15 in the first quarter alone, while Sangalang drilled in 15 markers in a back-up role. They shot a combined 12/14 from the field to finish with a total of 30 points on top of 19 rebounds. Most of the credit should go to Tim Cone, who exploited Ginebra’s inability to properly switch on screens. It was clear after the match that Cone convincingly outcoached his Ginebra counterpart – Ato Agustin.
Relive the action: AS IT HAPPENS: Ginebra vs San Mig Coffee PBA semis game 7
The Worst: Even amidst all the statistical disparities in terms of shooting, rebounding, and playmaking, there was nothing worse than Ginebra’s failing to implement proper adjustments to the way the Mixers were attacking their defense. Ginebra’s bigs kept on biting on those pumpfakes, and, more importantly, kept getting lost in those flare screens in the 2-point area. Time and again, San Mig’s bigs found themselves too open too close to the hole. This happened with impunity in the first half, but Ginebra’s brain trust just couldn’t find an effective way to counter this in the final 24 minutes. It was a brilliant tactic by coach Cone, and coach Ato (and his platoon of deputies) just couldn’t neutralize it.
Super Shooting Guards: Both PJ Simon and James Yap are natural shooting guards, which is why it’s a bit strange everytime both guys are on the court in lieu of more natural playmakers like Mark Barroca or Alex Mallari. Still, last night this proved mightily effective, as Simon and Yap caught fire and kept the Kings at bay every time they seemed to put a short run together. Yap had his best shooting performance of the season so far, rifling in 7 three-pointers on his way to a game-high 30 points. Simon, for his part, did what he does best — sliding into the midrange and drilling those pull-ups. Simon shot 10/14 from the 2-point area to finish with 28 points overall. In this game, the Mixers were just too smart, too good, and too strong. – Rappler.com
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