Alaska-San Mig Game 2: Thoss should be ‘The Boss’ to close series for Aces

MANILA, Philippines – The way Sonny Thoss seem to be immune to all the pushing, shoving, and banging that happens inside the paint all game long makes Alaska the favorite over an embattled San Mig Coffee crew.

At 6-foot-7 and 205 pounds (per pba-online.net but he is certainly heavier), Thoss is the heaviest, widest, and strongest person in the Alaska camp to bang bodies with James Mays of the San Mig Super Coffee Mixers.

This is reminiscent of how he more than held his own against then Best Import Denzel Bowles and Ginebra’s Vernon Macklin in the 2013 Commissioner’s Cup.

Thoss owned the paint. He won the Finals MVP plum, and led the Aces to a masterful 3-0 sweep of Ginebra in the finals.

Bully in the paint

Thoss doesn’t care if you’re an NBA-caliber player nor does he mind if you’re a 7-foot-4 Korean center named Ha Seung-Jin. (Check the 2009 FIBA Asia Championship game between Powerade Team Pilipinas and Korea). He is not afraid to mix it up against any opponent in the low block.

In a series definitely decided hustle and muscle, Thoss will be a critical ingredient if Alaska wants a second crack at the midseason tournament’s trophy.

“I brought an aggressive defensive mindset, banging him and banging him so come the fourth quarter, hopefully he would be a little tired,” said Thoss on the daunting task of defending Mays.

“He is a handful. He was relentless on the offensive rebounds so I did my job to keep him out of those rebounds.”

Joining Thoss is a physical group composed of Gabby Espinas, Calvin Abueva, and Vic Manuel, whose mindset coming into the quarterfinals seemed to be “mess with us at your own risk.”

When Aces mentor Luigi Trillo realized the Mixers frontline kept bullying them in the first half, he turned to these imposing, more bullish guys to change the complexion of the match and shut down the Mixers.

Beyond the boxscores

San Mig dominated the hustle stats  – 25-14 in offensive boards, 16-6 in second chance points, and 7-3 in steals, – but outside of the boxscores, Alaska’s physicality controlled the match earning them an 86-77 victory.

Players in this series will push you, pull you, take you down, and hurt you in every way possible. Alaska’s hounding defense limited San Mig to a measly 7 assists.

Marc Pingris – the heart and soul of San Mig Coffee’s physicality and hustle – played 25 minutes, made 2 out of 8 basket attempts, and only had 5 rebounds.

Perhaps he is still hurting. But he is a warrior. Remember the ‘puso’ game against Korea in the 2013 FIBA Asia Championship last year?

Pingris will never surrender, but he can’t do it alone. He needs his teammates to toughen up if they want to extend this series. 

As both teams clash again on Wednesday, 5:45 pm at the Smart Araneta Colisuem, take a closer look at the battle down low as it could very well determine the outcome of the series. – with reports from Mae Santos and Noli Magsambol/Rappler.com