Ball Points (10-30-2009)

• It was Freaky Friday for the PBA last night and the broadcasters were asked to wear costumes. Ateanan Mico Halili wore a DLSU jacket but could not take the color of green for a whole game as choose to take it off by halftime. Chiqui Reyes wore some sort of wizard outfit. Of course, I will not forget to mention the beautiful Lia Cruz. (Click on her name to see her in costume.) She was having difficulty picking out a costume before settling on dressing up as Mico Halili. Hey, this girl would look great in ANY type of costume. Onto some real basketball talk now. Anybody who said they believe that Josh Urbiztondo and Dennis Daa can lead the SLR Realtors in scoring in a official PBA game is lying. Josh led the team a team-high and career-high 24 points and 4 assists while Dennis Daa finished with 15 points and 4 rebounds. My biggest concern for the Realtors is their depth. Their best 5 of Gabby Espinas, Kelly Williams, Bitoy Omolon, Ryan Reyes and Joseph Yeo can compete with any team in the league but the same can't be said for their bench. Guys like Urbiztondo, Daa, Ardy Larong and Chris Pacana have to contribute on a consistent basis if the Realtors expect to contend for the All-Filipino Cup title. In the 1st game of the double-header in the PBA, the Coca-Cola Tigers were able to earn their 1st win despite trailing by double-digit in the 3rd.
• It looks like the games against Smart-Gilas will not count in the standings after all. The PBA commissioner has already sent a letter to SBP director Noli Eala notifying him of the decision of the PBA officials. Of course, the PBA ordered the change due to the lack of playing time of Gilas import CJ Giles when they played against TNT (Smart-Gilas' sister team). Their theory is that Rajko benched Giles to help boost their sister team's standing which I don't get at all. Can you blame Toroman for benching his import because his best player's head wasn't in the game? He didn't even play a single second against BGK. As far as I can remember, BGK is not a sister team of Smart-Gilas. Hey, Toroman fielded Giles as much as possible in their against BK and his boss Manny V. Pangilinan is actually a part owner of BK. If Toroman did try to help improve TNT's record by benching Giles, why didn't he do it for MVP's other team? Noli's not happy at all as well. He's saying that this latest development is a message from the PBA that they do not want the Smart-Gilas team playing in the commercial league. I'm pretty sure that this is not a objective comment at all from Eala. He has taken every opportunity to bash the PBA in the past because of what happened in 2007. What's done is done. Eala has to move on. At least the PBA is still willing to let them play with the PBA teams. Besides, the Gilas team needs international competition and not local competition. I fear that they might get sucked in the brand of play of the PBA if they play with them extensively. PBA teams employ so much isolation plays and let their star players "gumawa ng diskarte." I'm not saying the style of play of PBA players is ugly. In fact, it's a nice treat to watch. It's just that the 2 previous RP teams have not reached a respectable finish in FIBA-Asia with this style.
• I got treated to a very lengthy game when I watched the battle between the 2 best teams of the Northwest Divison of the NBA last year, the Denver Nuggets and the Portland Trailblazers. The game took so long because of the 90 combined free throws attempts by both teams. I don't think you can blame the refs for calling so much fouls. The stars of both teams, Carmelo Anthony and Brandon Roy, were just both very aggressive driving down the lane. They actually combined for 37 FT attempts in the game. I guess the refs thought that it was also fitting to just let FTs decide the game. With 4.6 seconds remaining and Denver holding a 1 point lead, Kenyon Martin was called for a very soft foul for holding on Greg Oden. It looked like Portland got lucky as they were rewarded a golden opportunity to take the lead. Unfortunately for them, FTs ultimately gave the Nuggets the win as Greg Oden missed his two FTs. On the other end, Melo knocked down his pair of charity shots after he was fouled as he got the rebound off Oden's miss. I never liked seeing a ball game be decided on FTs. Let the players play. Melo was very aggressive in the game and the commentators said that the Melo of this year is different from the Melo of past years. I'll have to agree to that after seeing him in action. Now, if he can only turn himself into an all-around performer. That means he needs to get better at the defensive end and he needs to be a better passer. He showed some signs of that last year but he has to do it consistently if he wants to win a ring for himself. Does his team have enough to get past the Lakers and the Spurs? I don't think so but nobody expected them to be in the Western Conference Finals last year.
• How about the blowout win of the Mavs over the defending champions, the LA Lakers? And they did it in Kobe's house, the Staples Center. The Lakers just could not buy a basket in the 2nd half. The Mavs really looked good on both ends of the floor as they were getting open shots while they forced the Lakers into difficult, contested shots. Ron Artest looked lost in his 1st 2 games as a Laker. He's shooting 4-16 from the field so far. Not a very encouraging sign if you're a Laker fan. If these Lakers come up with anything less than a championship at the end of the year, Ron-Ron is going to be unfairly blamed for it. It's not his fault the Celtics have a healthy KG this year and some new quality recruits in Rasheed Wallace and Marquis Daniels. He also shouldn't be blamed for making other contenders like the Orlando Magic, Cleveland Cavaliers and Dallas Mavericks a lot deeper this year. I just hope that Ron Artest will find a way to incorporate himself into the Lakers' system without causing so much headache. Jeff Van Gundy also remarked (repeatedly, maybe 10 times?) how having Dirk Nowitzki play as the center while putting Marion at the power forward position will create so much headache for the opposing teams' defense. I agree with him on that but if Dirk does play the 5, that would mean the either Dirk or Shawn Marion will have to defend the likes of Tim Duncan, David West, Pau Gasol, Dwight Howard, Kevin Garnett, etc. That doesn't really quite equate to a successful playoff run in my book.