Asi's back and Coca-Cola Tigers begin to growl again

One can only wonder where the Coca-Cola Tigers would have been at this stage of the 2009 KFC-PBA Philippine Cup if only lead center Paul Asi Taulava had not missed a good majority of their games due to foot injury. With a frenetic pre-season build-up, the Tigers were expected to be up there basking in the limelight along with the league-leaders instead of languishing in the cellar for more than two months.

But as Fate would have it, Taulava suffered a foot injury eight minutes into Coca-Cola’s second game of the season against Barako Bull and was sidelined for nine matches. The good news is, Taulava’s back and the Tigers aren’t out yet. In fact, they’re starting to growl. Last Sunday, Taulava displayed his old fiery form and came away with 18 points, 12 rebounds and six assists as Coca-Cola handed frontrunner Alaska Milk only its second loss in 13 games via a 105-92 rout. It was the first time that the Tigers scored back-to-back wins in the tournament and that resulted in Coca-Cola moving out of the cellar with a 3-11 record. "Asi’s winning attitude has positively affected his teammates. His contribution is a given. It is his enthusiasm and leadership that helped us win our last two games," said Coca-Cola coach Bo Perasol of his 6-9 behemoth who was named Accel-KFC Player of the Week by the PBA Press Corps for the period December 13 to 20. Taulava also had a double-double (12 points and 10 rebounds) aside from two assists and two steals when Coca-Cola defeated Burger King, 106-94, last December 13. In winning POTW honors, Taulava edged out Talk N Text’s Jimmy Alapag and Harvey Carey and San Miguel Beer’s Jonas Villanueva. Overall, in five games played so far, Taulava has averaged 10.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 0.4 steal and two errors in 27 minutes. At the moment, Coca-Cola can no longer make a run at an automatic quarterfinals berth even if it win its last four games. At best, the Tigers can only hope to avoid early elimination and then win a pair of knockout matches in the wildcard phase. And with Taulava back in harness, that objective looks very much doable. - GMANews.TV