Painters couldn’t capitalize

Believe it or not, Alaska committed 24 turnovers in Game 6 of the Aces’ PBA Philippine Cup semifinal series against Rain Or Shine at the Mall of Asia Arena last Sunday. In contrast, the Elasto Painters had only 15 miscues. Although known for its efficiency in execution, the Aces had a ton of errors with five players picking up at least three each.

But Rain Or Shine failed to capitalize on Alaska’s turnovers while the Aces did a good job of recovering from those errors. When the smoke cleared, Alaska won, 79-76, with both teams scoring 12 turnover points each. So even as Alaska had nine more miscues, the Aces had the same turnover points as Rain Or Shine.

It was the same story in Game 3 which Alaska won, 94-78. The Aces had 19 turnovers and the Painters, 16, but surprisingly, Alaska had more turnover points, 12-11. The stats showed that while Alaska gave up more possessions, the Aces stood their ground on defense and wouldn’t allow Rain Or Shine easy baskets off the turnovers.

Defense was the key to Alaska’s 4-2 triumph in the series. In the Aces’ four wins, Rain Or Shine never scored more than 88 points and averaged only 80.5. In the Painters’ two wins, they averaged 100 points. Alaska’s pressing defense worked wonders in delaying Rain Or Shine’s execution. It didn’t necessarily force turnovers. The trick was disrupting the Painters’ flow and putting Rain Or Shine under time pressure to score, leading to poor shot selection. Rain Or Shine’s field goal percentage took a direct hit as a result – 40 percent in Game 1, 33 percent in Game 3, 39 percent in Game 5 and 32 percent in Game 6. Those were the four games that Alaska won in the series.

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Alaska tightened the screws in Sunday’s clincher. The Painters were held to less than 20 points in three periods, 16 in the first, 12 in the second and 16 in the fourth. Rain Or Shine cut loose with 32 points in the third quarter but the Painters’ guns went silent in the payoff period. Only three Painters scored in the fourth quarter – Raymond Almazan with eight, Jonathan Uyloan with five and Jeff Chan with three. Gabe Norwood, Paul Lee and Beau Belga were blanked.

Rain Or Shine, however, wasn’t totally outclassed. Despite the Painters’ shooting woes, they were in the thick of the fight until the last second. Rain Or Shine was up, 76-73 and could’ve clinched it down the stretch if only Dondon Hontiveros didn’t wax hot. Hontiveros scored back-to-back triples to push Alaska ahead, 79-76, and Chan’s triple try at the buzzer to send it into overtime hit the back iron.

The Painters just couldn’t crack Alaska’s defense on a consistent basis. The Aces covered all bases from the interior to the perimeter. Because of Alaska’s lost possessions, Rain Or Shine had seven more field goal attempts but the Painters’ connection rate was horrendous. Lee shot only 2-of-11 field goals or an 18 percent clip, Norwood 2-of-9 for 22 percent, Belga 3-of-11 for 27 percent and Chan 4-of-13 for 31 percent. Ryan Arana, Belga, Norwood and Lee were a combined 2-of-17 from beyond the arc or 12 percent.

Only Chan and Almazan scored in double figures. Almazan battled courageously in the fourth period and fired eight points but had little support. Alaska coach Alex Compton stole a page from Rain Or Shine coach Yeng Guiao’s playbook as he leaned on his second unit to seal the win. The Aces’ relievers outscored the Painters’ shock troopers, 49-30, with Hontiveros leading the charge. Hontiveros hit 15 of his 17 points in the fourth period. Calvin Abueva, who started in Games 1 and 2 then gave up his spot to Vic Manuel, contributed 15 points and nine rebounds. Guiao usually draws a high level of productivity from his second and third units but not in this series.

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Guiao never used the same starting unit from Games 1 to 6 and rotated 11 players in his first fives. In Game 6, he went with Almazan, Chan, Uyloan, J. R. Quinahan and Arana. Lee, Belga and Norwood came off the bench.

Alaska was never outrebounded in any game of the series. But in Game 6, Rain Or Shine grabbed more offensive boards, 18-14. Yet, the Painters could score only two second chance points compared to Alaska’s 10. So even if the Aces gave up four more possessions because of Rain Or Shine’s offensive rebounding, they held their ground on defense, recovered and made it tough for the Painters to score on multiple opportunities. Alaska made a strong effort to shut down Rain Or Shine’s passing lanes and goaded the Painters to go one-on-one, resulting in only 13 assists compared to the Aces’ 17.

Hontiveros’ emergence in the clutch wasn’t a surprise. He’s comfortable in his role as a reliever, providing instant offense. As a veteran, Hontiveros is able to read situations and find ways to capitalize. In Game 6, Hontiveros saw how Rain Or Shine clamped down on Abueva and Thoss inside the lane so he made himself available for kickouts. And because of Compton’s system of sharing the ball and getting everyone involved in the offense, Hontiveros got his touches and made Rain Or Shine pay.

“I didn’t have to tell Dondon what to do,” said Compton. “He just went crazy in the fourth period and even hit one from way out in the parking lot. Now that we’re up against San Miguel, we can’t afford to make as many turnovers like we did in the Rain Or Shine series.”

Tomorrow, Alaska returns to action and faces San Miguel Beer in Game 1 of the best-of-seven finals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The Beermen are coming off an 11-day rest. They haven’t won a title since Petron took the Governors Cup crown in 2010-11 so their championship drought has extended to nine straight conferences. Alaska’s last championship came in the 2012-13 Commissioner’s Cup with Luigi Trillo as head coach and Compton his assistant. The last time Alaska and San Miguel faced off in the finals was in the 2009-10 Fiesta Conference where coach Tim Cone led the Aces to a 4-2 win.