The Final Score: My Heart-Attack Team is Abueva, Aguilar, Cardona, Urbiztondo and Williams

What do Calvin Abueva, Japeth Aguilar, Mac Cardona, Josh Urbiztondo and Justin Williams have in common? They’re all no-no-no-yes-yes-yes players. Usually, when they shoot (often they shoot in most unusual ways), we hear ourselves pleading, “No! No! No!” Then, unexpectedly, they score. It changes the game. It rocks all reason. So we end up screaming, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

Although he was undersized among local forwards, Abueva became a sensation in the Philippine Cup. Noon yun. Standing side by side with towering imports in the Commissioner’s Cup, his height becomes a handicap now more than ever. I don’t think he has accepted that. In his first game of the tournament, he scored a crucial three-pointer while doing a split in mid-air, he blocked the shot of Rain or Shine’s 7'3" import and grabbed 14 rebounds as if he were Alaska’s import. Honestly, I’m surprised with Japeth. I wonder if GlobalPort is just as surprised as I am. He joined the team just three days before their first game, yet we’ve never seen him this comfortable in a system. Sixteen points, nine rebounds, three assists, two steals, and four blocks vs Petron Blaze. Twenty-three points, 10 rebounds and a three-point shot vs Barako Bull. You don’t have to be radically pro-Japeth to be happy for Japeth. It’s nice to see him finally play well. Goodbye Mark. Hello Mac-Mac. It’s not just semantics. It’s really a change in personality. To be more precise, I’m clamoring for a return to the basics. Meralco needs Cardona to go back to being impulsive. The PBA needs Cardona to go back to being fearless. Anyone watching the Bolts prays that Cardona goes back to being non-conformist. He fired 16 points vs Talk ‘N Text. Baka nahihiya pa. Give him time. Lalabas din ang orig na Mac-Mac. No one does the Cha-Cha Dance of Death better than Urbiztondo. When he has the ball, no one really understands where he wants to go. Forward? Backward? Sideways? He looks like he’s always in a rush, like he’s 45 minutes late for his flight. Yet he’s averaging 20.5 PPG, 7.0 RPG, and 4.0 APG. He has eleven three-point shots in two games. Maybe he drinks too many bottles of Barako Bull right before games. It doesn’t matter. It works. Williams is raw energy. I’m worried that one day he’ll pull a muscle while celebrating a dunk. He’s that energetic. He has a limited post-up game. He needs to improve his free throw shooting. He should conserve energy when celebrating dunks. Maybe I’m just nitpicking. Eighteen points, 15 rebounds and three blocks in 23 minutes vs Petron. Twenty-seven rebounds and three blocks vs Barako Bull. GlobalPort’s import doesn’t prefer to score. GlobalPort’s import prefers to do everything else. Some guys play it cool. My Heart-Attack Team, on the other hand, likes it fast. Surely they’re reckless at times. But they made the opening weekend fun to watch. I’m banking on them to make the rest of the conference just as fun to follow. - AMD, GMA News