By Jonas Terrado
Game Tuesday
(The Arena, San Juan)
4 p.m. — Alab Pilipinas vs Fubon
San Miguel Alab Pilipinas is hoping to be more prepared after a bad start to 2020 as it takes on former NBA player OJ Mayo and Taiwan’s Fubon Braves in the ASEAN Basketball League at The Arena in San Juan.
San Miguel Alab Pilipinas hopes to back bounce back as they take on former NBA player OJ Mayo and the Taiwan Fubon Braves. (ABL Images)
Game time is set at 4 p.m. with Alab team of coach Jimmy Alapag looking to bounce back from a shock 98-93 loss to the Macau Wolf Warriors two nights ago at the same venue.
The defeat snapped Alab’s streak of four consecutive victories, prompting Alapag to take the blame for the anemic performance of his players.
“I really look at it as being the coach not having our guys ready to play, that’s really what it came down to,” Alapag said after the Philippine club dropped to third place at 4-2, trailing Thailand’s Mono Vampire (5-1) and Malaysian side Kuala Lumpur Dragons (3-1).
Alab trailed 13-4 at the start, spending the rest of the game trying to wrest control from the Wolf Warriors.
The hosts led 91-90 with under three minutes to go when the Wolf Warriors scored eight unanswered points also marred by Alab’s cold shooting and erratic offensive execution down the stretch.
“We got off to a really, really bad start,” Alapag lamented. “I wasn’t happy with us being just real flat and really low energy and that comes from me. I got to make sure that our energy’s up and play sharper as a team going into Tuesday, especially with a quality team like Fubon coming in.”
The Taipei-based Braves hold a 6-3 record led by Mayo, a familiar figure among Filipino hoop fans after spending most of his NBA career with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Former NBA player OJ Mayo will be the player to watch for the visiting Fubon Braves. (Photo from ABL)
Mayo is averaging 22.0 points, 4.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists this season.
Also notable players for Fubon are 7-foot-5 center Sim Bhullar, former Saigon Heat and CLS Knights reinforcement Maxie Esho and Taiwan national team players Wen-Cheng Tsai, Tseng Wen-Ting and Chih-Shan Hung.
In order to defeat the Braves, Alab will have to see 7-foot-5 center Sam Deguara avoid foul trouble, Khalif Wyatt regain his shooting, Nick King to provide more than just points and for Jason Brickman to have a good balance act of playmaking and scoring.
Source: Manila Bulletin
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