PBA: Judgment day for Air21, hopes for KO punch vs Ginebra

MANILA, Philippines – Sunday could very well be a special day for Air21, though its coach firmly believes that they already don’t have to do anything more special. “Wala naman bago or special na dapat nang gawin," said Bo Perasol. “We may be excited at the probability of us winning the championship. But there’s still work to be done. That last thing we don’t want is us playing in a Game 7." The team that at first appeared to have no chance of winning the Smart-Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Fiesta Conference title is now the one on the verge of wrapping it up against a ball club that at first looked unstoppable to beat. The Express, ahead 3-2 in the best-of-seven series, now go for the clincher that will finally end a franchise title drought that has stretched to six years. Hungry, driven by motivation from an articulate coach and showing class by defying hostile atmospheres, the Express can transform non-believers into loyal subjects with a victory in Game 6 Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum, and at the same time send a message across the hoop world that their time has now come. “They (player) know what to do," said Perasol. “And that is to stop Ginebra’s fastbreaks and second chance points. This is not over." Ginebra will be in a situation it wasn’t expected to be in. But Jay-Jay Helterbrand, the Best Player of the Conference, suffered an injury in Game 2 that threw its rotation in disarray for the next three games, and didn’t execute quite well in Game 5 when the game was still hotly contested. The Gin Kings played like newcomers in the Finals Friday, throwing the ball away in two of their last three possessions on errors, particularly the pass by Erik Menk that was intercepted by Arwind Santos that led to a one-handed lay-up in the last 43 seconds. Then, Chris Alexander was called for a traveling violation in the last 2.1 seconds an offensive play after Mark Caguioa bungled a fade-away jumper with Santos defending. It was a sequence that exposed how defense wins games, let alone championships. And if ever the Express would want to deliver the jugular tonight, they would have to execute the same old, tested story in the sport: play good defense. Out of the 33 teams in PBA history that went to win a Game 5 after a 2-2 tie in a best-of-7 showdown, 25 were able to capture the title. That would equate now that Air21 surely is a hot pick to conquer Ginebra, even though recent memory tells that trailing 3-2 isn’t exactly a hopeless case. Alaska was the last ball club to come back from a 3-2 deficit to win a championship, beating Talk ‘N Text in Games 6 and 7 to bag the 2006-07 Fiesta Conference crown. The loss was one Ginebra coach Jong Uichico said was extremely difficult to swallow. “I thought we did and accomplish everything," said Uichico. “I mean holding them down to 76 points is something. We did everything except to win the game. Hopefully we can come up with a win on Sunday." They better should. Uichico said that Uichico is definitely out for tomorrow. With that, Ginebra should get big numbers from Chris Pacana and Paul Artadi, who in Game 4 submitted conference highs of 14 and 13 points, respectively. But the key in Ginebra’s offense has always been Caguioa. And in Game 5, the player everyone knows as near impossible to stop was nearly grounded, only coming up with seven points on 3-of-13 shooting. The other notable statistic going against Ginebra is that it has yet to win a best-of-7 series when down 3-2. If Air21 wins, this will be the first time in 10 seasons that no San Miguel-controlled ball club has won a title. The last time this occurred was in 1998, when Alaska and Shell won all the three championships at stake. – GMANews.TV