Welcome the Derby Ace Llamados (?) and other Purefoods-Alaska matters
The buzz is that after winning the Philippine Cup championship, Purefoods will be changing its name to promote the company’s B-Meg line of animal feeds. An NBN Sports report said that the new name will be the ‘Derby Ace Llamados’ after B-Meg’s gamefowl feeds brand. I don’t mind the Derby Ace name, but do they really have to pander so shamefully to the lo-diyes crowd with the Llamados nickname? Why not the Derby Ace Slashers, which is way cooler?
Then again, the team is already currently nicknamed the ‘Tender Juicy Giants’ which has to be one of the most awful (and frankly, kinda gay) nicknames in the history of basketball, so rooting for the Llamados wouldn’t be so bad, right? Also it could’ve been worse, as the team could’ve been named after hog pellets or tilapia feeds. Or chick boosters.
Still, part of me thinks that this is San Miguel Corporation management’s punishment for Purefoods for kicking San Miguel’s ass in the semifinals.
Anyway, a lot of interesting stuff around the Internet after Purefoods’ masterful victory over the Alaska Aces last night.
- You should all start checking out IV Point Play, an impressive new Pinoy sports blog by Polo Bustamante and Carlo Araneta. The guys also produce a pretty entertaining podcast called ‘From the Stands’ (episode 4 was particularly good). Both guys behind the blog are Alaska fans, so I enjoyed their analysis of how Purefoods won: “So the Purefoods TJ Giants are kings of the Philippine Basketball world, and they totally deserve it, while Alaska, for the second straight year, is left searching for what prevents them from taking the next step forward. Funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
- Jude Turcuato attended the game live last night, and raved about the King of the PBA, James Yap: “A smooth operator, he doesn't get too excited or too down. He is like a well oiled machine built to play on the court and get the job done. He is the best offensive player in the PBA right now and it seems his defense is catching up as well. You can tell that although he doesn’t talk much, his teammates rely on him to lead them and James embraces the responsibility. James is a player who has the fans holding their breath in anticipation whenever he has the ball. Very few have that ability.”
There’s also this interesting note on Jude’s discussion with Coach Ryan before the team drafted Yap in 2004: “When Coach Ryan told me that James is the best player in the draft, I thought he was in one of his hyperbolic raves again. I worked with him in the UAAP panel and a little in the PBA and he did have a tendency to get over excited about basketball, which I think is great.” - The last several games of Purefoods are available on Bit Torrent at IP Mart. You can download using the using these credentials – username: tjgiants2010/password: tjgiants. As always, with these things, kindly seed.
- Finally, Ginebra fans taking on Alaska with a little help from the April Boys:
Purefoods sweeps Alaska to win the 2010 Philippine Cup
Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio probably believes in it enough to mention that his team was playing on the 3rd day of the 3rd month of the year, and 33 was coincidentally the number of Eugene Tejada, the former Purefoods forward who was paralyzed in a freak accident during a game four years ago. The players had dedicated the rest of the conference to their fallen comrade, and they won the Philippine Cup championship that year too.
Three championships for Coach Ryan. Three years of reprieve from Fire Quinito.
In his post-game address to the frenzied Araneta Coliseum crowd, James Yap dedicated the game to his late mother-in-law, former President Corazon Aquino, his number one fan who never missed any of his games before she passed away last year. During the series, his teammates joined Yap in wearing yellow armbands to dedicate the rest of the games in her honor. Over the course of the next couple of months, the whole nation will be treated to a debate about the existence or the impact of ‘Cory magic’ in the political arena. Tonight, it would seem that the magic is alive and well at the Araneta Coliseum.
I am not a faithful man; I don’t know if I believe in destiny or magic. But I know I believe in basketball, and I believe that the best team gets to lift up the trophy at the end of the tournament.
Tonight, there’s no question about it: Purefoods is the best team in the land after taking game 4 over Alaska, 86-76, to sweep the 2010 PBA Philippine Cup best-of-7 finals.
Oh, the Aces came to play tonight. At least, their main men Willie Thriller and The Boss did. Alaska may not have looked great this evening – no team that gets swept 0-4 ever does – but this is a great, well-coached team that has been excellent all conference long. It was Purefoods that made them look awful.
There was Roger Yap, the floor general who didn’t shoot well in this series, but controlled the tempo of the games. He was masterful at taking the air out of the ball to make sure that Alaska never had the opportunity to get a few easy baskets in a faster game.
There was Kerby Raymundo, the on-again, off-again superstar, the operative word being superstar. While his performance may have been up-and-down, he was still a constant matchup nightmare for Alaska; the opposing defense ALWAYS had to worry about him, as if it didn’t have enough things to worry about.
There was the sampayan brigade of Marc Pingris, Rico Maierhofer, and Rafi Reavis. Sakuragi, in particular, was an absolute joy to watch; whenever some lazy curmudgeonly asshole sportswriter and/or blogger writes about how PBA players don’t play with any passion anymore unlike the UAAP or the bygone days of fucking Crispa and fucking Toyota, please send him clips of this guy. He rebounds like he’s still playing for ice tubig in the Pangasinan summer heat. He wrestles the big guys in the paint and harasses the guards out in the perimeter, sometimes all in the same sequence. My favorite was when he’d be guarding LA Tenorio and he’d get this look in his face like, “Putangina, sige, mag-penetrate ka, papalamunin kita ng bola.” It’s a testament to Tenorio that he didn’t pee his pants, but he stayed the hell out of the paint when Pingris was on him; his only good game in the series came when he was hitting his three-pointers.
There was the firestarter duo of KG Canaleta and Peter June Simon, neither of whom were born with a conscience. Both of them may be one-dimensional, but it’s a pretty awesome dimension.
There was the rest of the bench, led by Paul Artadi, cheering and clapping and jumping and chest-bumping around, annoying the fuck out of the other team’s fans.
Finally, there was James Yap, the MVP and the face of the franchise. Everyone knows about the killer spin moves and the booming three-pointers with a hand in his face, but only true fans know about the subtle nuances in his game. How he is so patient with the offense and how he is willing to defer, even when he could take his man one-on-one every possession. How he’s murder on the passing lanes when the team is playing zone, often getting steals or tipping the ball. How much he helps out on the boards, and how he never allows any offensive rebounds despite being assigned to a bigger guy. How he’s often the voice of reason on the floor when Kerby and Roger both get too aggressive on offense. How he’s far and away the most gifted offensive player on the floor, but he’s never an asshole about it, because he knows that at the end of the game he’ll be getting that ball and burying that fucking dagger.
Of course, the coaching staff led by Ryan Gregorio put it all together. They just hit all the right buttons in this series. The game plans, the substitutions, the timeouts, the play-calling, all of these were excellent. Ryan Gregorio, much-maligned not just by me but a lot of fellow Purefoods fans, was excellent.
The result on the court was beautiful. Purefoods executed its plays, disrupted the opponent’s offense with a headhunting press, recovered on defense, crashed the offensive boards, hit dagger shots, and battered Alaska from pillar to post. The awarding of the Philippine Cup at the end of the night seemed like mere formality; Purefoods looked every bit the champion long before the final buzzer sounded.
Some would call it destiny. Some would call it magic. I would call it damn great basketball.
Three championships for Coach Ryan. Three years of reprieve from Fire Quinito.
In his post-game address to the frenzied Araneta Coliseum crowd, James Yap dedicated the game to his late mother-in-law, former President Corazon Aquino, his number one fan who never missed any of his games before she passed away last year. During the series, his teammates joined Yap in wearing yellow armbands to dedicate the rest of the games in her honor. Over the course of the next couple of months, the whole nation will be treated to a debate about the existence or the impact of ‘Cory magic’ in the political arena. Tonight, it would seem that the magic is alive and well at the Araneta Coliseum.
I am not a faithful man; I don’t know if I believe in destiny or magic. But I know I believe in basketball, and I believe that the best team gets to lift up the trophy at the end of the tournament.
Tonight, there’s no question about it: Purefoods is the best team in the land after taking game 4 over Alaska, 86-76, to sweep the 2010 PBA Philippine Cup best-of-7 finals.
Oh, the Aces came to play tonight. At least, their main men Willie Thriller and The Boss did. Alaska may not have looked great this evening – no team that gets swept 0-4 ever does – but this is a great, well-coached team that has been excellent all conference long. It was Purefoods that made them look awful.
There was Roger Yap, the floor general who didn’t shoot well in this series, but controlled the tempo of the games. He was masterful at taking the air out of the ball to make sure that Alaska never had the opportunity to get a few easy baskets in a faster game.
There was Kerby Raymundo, the on-again, off-again superstar, the operative word being superstar. While his performance may have been up-and-down, he was still a constant matchup nightmare for Alaska; the opposing defense ALWAYS had to worry about him, as if it didn’t have enough things to worry about.
There was the sampayan brigade of Marc Pingris, Rico Maierhofer, and Rafi Reavis. Sakuragi, in particular, was an absolute joy to watch; whenever some lazy curmudgeonly asshole sportswriter and/or blogger writes about how PBA players don’t play with any passion anymore unlike the UAAP or the bygone days of fucking Crispa and fucking Toyota, please send him clips of this guy. He rebounds like he’s still playing for ice tubig in the Pangasinan summer heat. He wrestles the big guys in the paint and harasses the guards out in the perimeter, sometimes all in the same sequence. My favorite was when he’d be guarding LA Tenorio and he’d get this look in his face like, “Putangina, sige, mag-penetrate ka, papalamunin kita ng bola.” It’s a testament to Tenorio that he didn’t pee his pants, but he stayed the hell out of the paint when Pingris was on him; his only good game in the series came when he was hitting his three-pointers.
There was the firestarter duo of KG Canaleta and Peter June Simon, neither of whom were born with a conscience. Both of them may be one-dimensional, but it’s a pretty awesome dimension.
There was the rest of the bench, led by Paul Artadi, cheering and clapping and jumping and chest-bumping around, annoying the fuck out of the other team’s fans.
Finally, there was James Yap, the MVP and the face of the franchise. Everyone knows about the killer spin moves and the booming three-pointers with a hand in his face, but only true fans know about the subtle nuances in his game. How he is so patient with the offense and how he is willing to defer, even when he could take his man one-on-one every possession. How he’s murder on the passing lanes when the team is playing zone, often getting steals or tipping the ball. How much he helps out on the boards, and how he never allows any offensive rebounds despite being assigned to a bigger guy. How he’s often the voice of reason on the floor when Kerby and Roger both get too aggressive on offense. How he’s far and away the most gifted offensive player on the floor, but he’s never an asshole about it, because he knows that at the end of the game he’ll be getting that ball and burying that fucking dagger.
Of course, the coaching staff led by Ryan Gregorio put it all together. They just hit all the right buttons in this series. The game plans, the substitutions, the timeouts, the play-calling, all of these were excellent. Ryan Gregorio, much-maligned not just by me but a lot of fellow Purefoods fans, was excellent.
The result on the court was beautiful. Purefoods executed its plays, disrupted the opponent’s offense with a headhunting press, recovered on defense, crashed the offensive boards, hit dagger shots, and battered Alaska from pillar to post. The awarding of the Philippine Cup at the end of the night seemed like mere formality; Purefoods looked every bit the champion long before the final buzzer sounded.
Some would call it destiny. Some would call it magic. I would call it damn great basketball.
Purefoods finds ways to win, takes 3-0 lead over Alaska
To the naked eye, the last two games of the ongoing PBA Philippine Cup finals series between Purefoods and Alaska have been pretty much alike. They have been low-scoring games, with Purefoods pulling out the win at the last possessions.
The scores have been low because these teams play slow; as j_myxx of Patay ang Butiki pointed out in the comments of my post about game 1, these are the two slowest teams in the league. However, adjusting the scores for pace shows that the two games were vastly different: game 2 was a wild shootout, with each team going over the 100-point efficiency mark, while game three was a defensive struggle, as Purefoods barely topping 90 points while holding Alaska to 89.
The data is even more interesting when looking at Purefoods’ last six games (all wins), dating back to its semifinals series against San Miguel. Two things stand out: Purefoods is playing at its preferred slow pace, and there’s no rhyme or reason for their wins.
They’ve been winning in hoop-burning shootouts, and they’ve been winning in ugly defensive battles. To put it more succinctly, Ryan Gregorio’s boys have been finding ways to win ballgames.
Last night was no different. With James Yap and Kerby Raymundo (well, especially Kerby Raymundo) shooting miserably from the field, bench players Peter June Simon (in the first half) and KG Canaleta (in the second half) stepped up and hit big shots. Credit really must go to Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio for sticking with those two guys and giving them the green light to shoot, even if it means allowing Canaleta to hoist up turnaround, fadeaway three-pointers. Also, Gregorio played Simon at point guard for a stretch in the first half, allowing the struggling super-sub to have the ball in his hands to run the pick-and-roll and shoot over LA Tenorio. Rookie Rico Maierhofer had a good stretch too, slithering his way to easy baskets around the hoop.
It helps Purefoods’ cause that they have Marc Pingris and Rafi Reavis wreaking havoc on the boards. It just brings such a different dynamic to the game for a shooter to know that he can throw it up, because he has those guys hanging around the paint waiting to clean up his mess.
Alaska started out fairly strongly, matching up with Purefoods with their own big-ball lineup, as Tim Cone inserted Reynel Hugnatan to start the game in lieu of Tony de la Cruz. The move forces Purefoods to guard Hugnatan with their small forward (usually Marc Pingris), which means Sakuragi couldn’t go out and harass either of Alaska’s guards out in the perimeter. Unlike with dela Cruz, Purefoods can’t get away with guarding Hugnatan with James Yap.
But big ball only works when you can actually go with a big lineup, and Alaska couldn’t go big when Sonny Thoss got into foul trouble. I’ve mentioned before in my post about Alaska and in my FHM preview that Thoss might be the Aces’ most important player, and it was on full display last night, as Purefoods feasted on them when he was on the bench. This is why the Samigue Eman pickup could potentially be so great for Alaska, because if the big guy can develop, the Aces wouldn’t have to take such a big hit when Thoss is chilling on the bench.
One more thing I’d like to note about the game last night was LA Tenorio starting to pull all his crap again. The flopping, the flailing, the posturing, the ‘incidental’ forearms he leaves on his defender before getting the ball on the inbounds, and just his general smarmy douchiness. He was in tip-top OA Tenorio form all game long, and I think that he squandered all of Alaska’s karma after game 2. The basketball gods do not suffer douchebags gladly.
Alaska now faces very tall odds in this series. Will they win? Probably not. Can they win? Since we started with some stats stuff, let me throw out this old post from ESPN’s John Hollinger writing about 0-3 comebacks in the NBA:
The logic applies too in the PBA. If a comeback from a 0-3 deficit were to happen – and at this point, the chances are very, very slim – it would happen when two teams are evenly matched. Patay ang Butiki noted that, before the series, each team had practically the same point-differential over its opponents. Statistically, the teams were about the same. You can’t get more evenly-matched than that.
The scores have been low because these teams play slow; as j_myxx of Patay ang Butiki pointed out in the comments of my post about game 1, these are the two slowest teams in the league. However, adjusting the scores for pace shows that the two games were vastly different: game 2 was a wild shootout, with each team going over the 100-point efficiency mark, while game three was a defensive struggle, as Purefoods barely topping 90 points while holding Alaska to 89.
| PF PTS | ALA PTS | PF EFF EFF | ALA EFF | POSS | |
| Game 2 | 86 | 85 | 102.41 | 101.22 | 83 |
| Game 3 | 79 | 78 | 90.78 | 89.63 | 87 |
The data is even more interesting when looking at Purefoods’ last six games (all wins), dating back to its semifinals series against San Miguel. Two things stand out: Purefoods is playing at its preferred slow pace, and there’s no rhyme or reason for their wins.
They’ve been winning in hoop-burning shootouts, and they’ve been winning in ugly defensive battles. To put it more succinctly, Ryan Gregorio’s boys have been finding ways to win ballgames.
Last night was no different. With James Yap and Kerby Raymundo (well, especially Kerby Raymundo) shooting miserably from the field, bench players Peter June Simon (in the first half) and KG Canaleta (in the second half) stepped up and hit big shots. Credit really must go to Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio for sticking with those two guys and giving them the green light to shoot, even if it means allowing Canaleta to hoist up turnaround, fadeaway three-pointers. Also, Gregorio played Simon at point guard for a stretch in the first half, allowing the struggling super-sub to have the ball in his hands to run the pick-and-roll and shoot over LA Tenorio. Rookie Rico Maierhofer had a good stretch too, slithering his way to easy baskets around the hoop.
It helps Purefoods’ cause that they have Marc Pingris and Rafi Reavis wreaking havoc on the boards. It just brings such a different dynamic to the game for a shooter to know that he can throw it up, because he has those guys hanging around the paint waiting to clean up his mess.
Alaska started out fairly strongly, matching up with Purefoods with their own big-ball lineup, as Tim Cone inserted Reynel Hugnatan to start the game in lieu of Tony de la Cruz. The move forces Purefoods to guard Hugnatan with their small forward (usually Marc Pingris), which means Sakuragi couldn’t go out and harass either of Alaska’s guards out in the perimeter. Unlike with dela Cruz, Purefoods can’t get away with guarding Hugnatan with James Yap.
But big ball only works when you can actually go with a big lineup, and Alaska couldn’t go big when Sonny Thoss got into foul trouble. I’ve mentioned before in my post about Alaska and in my FHM preview that Thoss might be the Aces’ most important player, and it was on full display last night, as Purefoods feasted on them when he was on the bench. This is why the Samigue Eman pickup could potentially be so great for Alaska, because if the big guy can develop, the Aces wouldn’t have to take such a big hit when Thoss is chilling on the bench.
One more thing I’d like to note about the game last night was LA Tenorio starting to pull all his crap again. The flopping, the flailing, the posturing, the ‘incidental’ forearms he leaves on his defender before getting the ball on the inbounds, and just his general smarmy douchiness. He was in tip-top OA Tenorio form all game long, and I think that he squandered all of Alaska’s karma after game 2. The basketball gods do not suffer douchebags gladly.
Alaska now faces very tall odds in this series. Will they win? Probably not. Can they win? Since we started with some stats stuff, let me throw out this old post from ESPN’s John Hollinger writing about 0-3 comebacks in the NBA:
All 83 times that a team has taken a 3-0 lead in an NBA best-of-seven playoff series, it has gone on to win the series.
But somebody is going to be the first to buck the trend. It happened for the first time in baseball with the Red Sox a few years ago, and inevitably it will happen in basketball, too.
And when would it happen? Most likely with a team that's basically as good as its opponent.
The logic applies too in the PBA. If a comeback from a 0-3 deficit were to happen – and at this point, the chances are very, very slim – it would happen when two teams are evenly matched. Patay ang Butiki noted that, before the series, each team had practically the same point-differential over its opponents. Statistically, the teams were about the same. You can’t get more evenly-matched than that.
Purefoods-Alaska game 1, in numbers
At the start of most PBA games, some announcer (usually Quinito Henson) would throw out some meaningless statistic like “If Purefoods holds Alaska down to less than 85 points, they’ll probably win the ballgame.” I keep waiting for them to say something like “If Purefoods holds Alaska to fewer points, they’ll probably win.” Yeah, and if they do it four times, they’ll win the series.
So I decided to crunch some numbers and apply some advanced statistics to Game 1 of the PBA Philippine Cup finals last night. I got the data from the last three games of each team, and computed for their offensive and defensive ratings, which are adjusted for the number of possessions in each game. Here’s what I found:
Alaska’s offense sputtered. In its last three games against Ginebra, Alaska scored 101.81 points per 100 possessions. Purefoods brought that number down to only 90.40 last night.
Purefoods’ defense is coming together. In games 4 and 5 of the San Miguel series, Purefoods burned the hoops by averaging 113 points per 100 possessions. However, they clinched the series with defense, holding San Miguel’s offensive rating to only 86.74 in game 6 of that series. They weren’t as great last night, but it was still pretty good.
They’re playing at Purefoods’ pace. In a way, the ‘hold them down to X points’ statistic is true, but not for the reason you think. In Purefoods’ case, it’s not so much a factor of the team defending well as much as it controlling the tempo. In each of Alaska’s last three wins over Ginebra, the game had at least 90 possessions, something that never happened during Purefoods’ games against San Miguel. Last night, the possession count was at 85, which is firmly in Purefoods’ comfort zone.
Alaska’s last four games
Purefoods’ last four games
So how did Purefoods limit Alaska last night? Marc Pingris started the game on LA Tenorio, denying penetration and daring the spitfire point guard to shoot over him. Sakuragi also affected Tenorio’s passing with his long arms, blocking clean angles to passing lanes; notice how far outside the block Sonny Thoss had to go get the ball. It didn’t help that Tenorio drew the assignment to take James Yap (a matchup I talked about in a previous post), and the 2006 MVP was on fire, scoring 24 points on 14 shots.
In the second half, Pingris switched to Willie Thriller, but by then Tenorio was sufficiently cowed that he was no longer a factor. In fact, his backup, Brandon Cablay, had a better game in limited minutes.
Purefoods had great defensive energy all game, keeping their men in front of them in man-to-man sets while playing a very aggressive zone defense that extended out and stifled Alaska’s shooters. It remains to be seen, however, if they will be able to keep up this kind of defensive energy.
Curiously, this is the same defensive energy that carried Purefoods to the 2006 Philippine Cup title over Red Bull, with Pingris leading the way en route to being named finals MVP of that series. But I expect Tim Cone to come up with adjustments not just for his team to be able to score, but perhaps more importantly, to pick up the pace.
So I decided to crunch some numbers and apply some advanced statistics to Game 1 of the PBA Philippine Cup finals last night. I got the data from the last three games of each team, and computed for their offensive and defensive ratings, which are adjusted for the number of possessions in each game. Here’s what I found:
Alaska’s offense sputtered. In its last three games against Ginebra, Alaska scored 101.81 points per 100 possessions. Purefoods brought that number down to only 90.40 last night.
Purefoods’ defense is coming together. In games 4 and 5 of the San Miguel series, Purefoods burned the hoops by averaging 113 points per 100 possessions. However, they clinched the series with defense, holding San Miguel’s offensive rating to only 86.74 in game 6 of that series. They weren’t as great last night, but it was still pretty good.
They’re playing at Purefoods’ pace. In a way, the ‘hold them down to X points’ statistic is true, but not for the reason you think. In Purefoods’ case, it’s not so much a factor of the team defending well as much as it controlling the tempo. In each of Alaska’s last three wins over Ginebra, the game had at least 90 possessions, something that never happened during Purefoods’ games against San Miguel. Last night, the possession count was at 85, which is firmly in Purefoods’ comfort zone.
Alaska’s last four games
| TM PTS | OPP PTS | OFF EFF | DEF EFF | POSS | |
| vs. Ginebra, Game 2 | 90 | 82 | 96.26 | 87.70 | 93 |
| vs. Ginebra, Game 3 | 91 | 88 | 96.27 | 93.09 | 94 |
| vs. Ginebra, Game 4 | 102 | 95 | 112.90 | 105.15 | 90 |
| vs. Purefoods, Game 1 | 77 | 81 | 90.40 | 95.09 | 85 |
Purefoods’ last four games
| TM PTS | OPP PTS | OFF EFF | DEF EFF | POSS | |
| vs. San Miguel, Game 4 | 97 | 84 | 113.32 | 98.13 | 85 |
| vs. San Miguel, Game 5 | 94 | 82 | 113.93 | 99.39 | 82 |
| vs. San Miguel, Game 6 | 87 | 78 | 96.75 | 86.74 | 89 |
| vs. Alaska, Game 1 | 81 | 77 | 95.09 | 90.40 | 85 |
So how did Purefoods limit Alaska last night? Marc Pingris started the game on LA Tenorio, denying penetration and daring the spitfire point guard to shoot over him. Sakuragi also affected Tenorio’s passing with his long arms, blocking clean angles to passing lanes; notice how far outside the block Sonny Thoss had to go get the ball. It didn’t help that Tenorio drew the assignment to take James Yap (a matchup I talked about in a previous post), and the 2006 MVP was on fire, scoring 24 points on 14 shots.
In the second half, Pingris switched to Willie Thriller, but by then Tenorio was sufficiently cowed that he was no longer a factor. In fact, his backup, Brandon Cablay, had a better game in limited minutes.
Purefoods had great defensive energy all game, keeping their men in front of them in man-to-man sets while playing a very aggressive zone defense that extended out and stifled Alaska’s shooters. It remains to be seen, however, if they will be able to keep up this kind of defensive energy.
Curiously, this is the same defensive energy that carried Purefoods to the 2006 Philippine Cup title over Red Bull, with Pingris leading the way en route to being named finals MVP of that series. But I expect Tim Cone to come up with adjustments not just for his team to be able to score, but perhaps more importantly, to pick up the pace.
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