The Final Score: For Talk 'N Text, it's business as usual

We should've known.

Game one of a PBA Finals, for most teams, is a feeling-out period. It's a chance to taste the foreign atmosphere. It's an opportunity to shake off excess excitement. For majority of teams, game one is page one of a new chapter. Although the first game of a championship series is hardly like most games, Talk 'N Text is hardly like most teams.

"Our players are all veterans already," Talk 'N Text Assistant Coach Sandy Arespacochaga said hours after they beat Rain or Shine in game one of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals. "Alam na nila gagawin nila in these kinds of situations."

[Related: Fonacier's late triple lifts TNT over Rain or Shine in Finals game one]

To be more specific, Talk 'N Text players are championship series veterans. I wonder if they still feel restless, develop cold hands, lose sleep, turn grumpy or sweat profusely before game 1one scenarios. Sanay na sanay na eh. I suspect that for this team, going to the Finals at the end of a tournament is as customary as going to church on Sundays. You might miss it once or twice but you don't expect to miss it too often.

"I think it's good to be a little nervous," Jimmy Alapag, one of Talk 'N Text's many playoff veterans, admits. "We are confident we can make plays offensively and defensively because we have a familiarity with big game situations. But I always have a sense of nervousness. Because anytime you can lose."

It's comforting to hear that Alapag is still subject to fear. Tao pa rin. Even if Talk 'N Text wins games at near-robotic efficiency. Even if Talk 'N Text often runs plays the way players execute half-court sets in an instructional DVD. In the first half of game one against Rain or Shine, Talk 'N Text players moved the ball, found open teammates, jammed opponents, ran fastbreaks and made shots with clinical fury. It was breathtaking. May takot pa sila Alapag sa lagay na yan.

"Every championship series poses a new challenge," Alapag says. "We're facing a team now that's been playing very well in the tournament. We're playing a young team and they're just as motivated to win the series."

It's hard to downplay Rain or Shine's motivations. They want to beat mighty Talk 'N Text. They want to win a championship without an import. They want to win with the most unpredictable rotation of players. They want to start a title streak of their own. They want to give Yeng Guiao his first Philippine Cup championship.

However, it's just as difficult to snap a good habit. Talk 'N Text is at it again. They're back in the Finals, building big leads, surviving scares, hitting clutch shots, meeting lofty expectations.

I believe Jimmy when he says he still feels nervous. It would sound strange if he didn't feel nervous at all. Parang hindi na tao. It would sound even stranger if Talk 'N Text totally succumbed to such natural anxieties in Game 1. Parang hindi na Talk 'N Text. - AMD, GMA News