WHEN you score only one basket in five minutes, you ought to lose.
There is no defense for a flaw as dysfunctional as that.
There is no defense for a failure as fatal as that.
There is no defense for mediocrity.
Look, this is the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Finals of the Philippine Cup. Only the best of the best are supposed to be here.
But what did TNT do?
It bungled big time its Game One battle against Barangay Ginebra.
First, it blew a won game in regulation—at the foul line yet.
After Jayson Castro made it 91-90 for TNT on a terrific three, Ray Parks Jr. split his charities to barely shove TNT away from harm’s way with a 92-90 Tropang Giga lead.
Was it fatigue that did Parks in?
He made the first charity so easily. Making the second would have given TNT a 93-90 bubble, which would have provided the much-needed cushion for TNT to absorb the impact of a counter-enemy fire.
But almost inexplicably, Parks missed it to keep the door ajar for Ginebra, which grabbed the rebound and, with 11.3 seconds left, Gin Coach Tim Cone called timeout.
A master in devising last-second magic, Cone coaxed L.A. Tenorio to trick a swarm defense to collapse unto him while he cut the lane. L.A. would next conveniently sneak in a lay-up-producing hand-off to Arvin Tolentino rushing in from the right flank. Showtime.
Still, with five seconds left, TNT had a chance to steal it. But Castro, so very hot earlier, flubbed the makeable, game-winning jumper from near the key to send the game to overtime.
It was then that TNT succumbed to the meltdown of the tournament, procuring a mere basket from R.R. Pogoy in the extension as Ginebra ran away with a 100-94 victory.
How can it happen that a finalist gets itself starved to a single basket over a five-minute span?
That’s like seeing Michael Jordan miss all his first 20 shots in his heyday.
I don’t know what kind of adjustment TNT would do on Wednesday (today) to even up matters, if not restore an ego bruised beyond recognition.
From my own humble hunch, TNT’s rebound mode should begin at the foul line.
But what’s this I hear about Parks being a question mark due to a recurring calf injury?
Without Parks—his missed winning charity and all—TNT will be like the Beatles performing without their lead guitarist George Harrison.
Are we then going to see a 2-0 Ginebra lead by tonight?
THAT’S IT Gilas Pilipinas beating Thailand a second time on Monday night in the Fiba Asia Cup in Bahrain is another proof of how deep our talent in Philippine basketball is. Remember, our players are “mere boys” from college. The future is here—or so it seems.