MANILA, Philippines — San Miguel Beer coach Leo Austria called out his local crew to stay true to their reputation as five-peat Philippine Cup titlist instead of relying too much on their super import Dez Wells.
The grand slam-seeking Beermen, Austria noted, seemed to be content on letting Wells do all the work in the PBA Governors’ Cup, leading to subpar performances and to back-to-back losses to NorthPort and Meralco.
“Our main concern are the local players,” said Austria as he assessed the situation for the fourth-running Beermen (5-3).
“They should provide help to Dez. He can score 56 points and do a lot for our team but he cannot do it alone. I think we have a problem with the locals because we are relying more on him.”
“We have to continue competing because the problem in our last games, we are just playing, we are not competing. I told them we should start now. We have to act together especially in practice,” said Austria.
Wells lit up the scoreboard with 56 last Wednesday but the Beermen ended up losing to the Batang Pier, 119-127. Two nights later, SMB was getting heavy production from Wells anew before the prolific import twisted his ankle in the second quarter and missed the entire second half in a 99-125 beating from Meralco. He finished with 18 markers in 18 minutes.
“He (Wells) had a sprain. We just didn’t want to aggravate it, that’s why we didn’t allow him to play in the second half,” said Austria.
“I think it’s not serious. He was able to get back and play (after the incident). It’s swollen but as long as there’s no tear, I think it’s easy to manage. We’ll see what will happen in the next few days. I told him he has to coordinate with our PT so it will heal properly and fast.”