PBA: Texters, Llamados hope to move closer to title-clinching win

Talk 'N Text has found ways to win games and keep its best-of-seven finals series against B-MEG knotted at two games apiece despite old reliables Jimmy Alapag and Ranidel De Ocampo still on "vacation." The defending champion Tropang Texters hope to break the 2-2 deadlock when they face their challengers, the Llamados, anew on Wednesday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. But whether or not Alapag and De Ocampo will finally return from their "vacation" and explode offensively, Texters coach Chot Reyes wants his team to play quality basketball the full 48 minutes. "In the end the team who plays above and beyond the crowd and the referees (will win). I'm not going to stress about it, but I'm going to emphasize to the team that we play good and quality basketball for 48 minutes." Alapag has averaged 8.25 points in the four games he played in the series shooting just 27.7 percent from the field and 19.04 percent from three-point range. He scored 12 points each in Games One and Four, his best offensive output so far in the title series. De Ocampo is much worse at 5.5 points per game on 8-of-32 field goal shooting (25 percent). He has yet to make a three-pointer after 10 attempts, though he managed to finish with 10 points on Sunday. "Good that we were able to comeback and tie the series. Our conversations every practice is centered on playing TNT basketball for 48mins," said Reyes. "Let's make sure we capitalize on a great effort. It all depends on which team stays in focus." Physical game Reyes also noted that "the physicality is given in any kind of playoffs (series)." The highly physical match-up was again seen in Sunday night's Game Four where Talk 'N Text rookie Pamboy Raymundo and B-MEG's Josh Urbiztondo exchanged elbows. Joe Devance later joined in when he tossed the ball at Raymundo's face, which led to the latter throwing a punch at the Llamados big man's back.   Raymundo and Urbiztondo were slapped a technical foul each. Devance and Raymundo were ejected after getting a Flagrant 2 and a Flagrant 1 foul apiece.   "Unfortunate that an incident like that happened in the end game, it's the Finals emotions are high and everybody's on edge," said Reyes. Failed to respond For B-MEG coach Tim Cone his wards failed to match Talk 'N Text's intensity. "Bottom-line was they (TNT) came out and played with a high level of desperation that we didn't respond to in the entire game." The Llamados seemed capable of matching the Tropang Texters early on and were only down by one after the opening period, 25-24. B-MEG, however, failed to match a 10-2 run by Talk 'N Text at the start of the second as the Texters slowly pull away.