A Lucky Escape or An Amazing Win: What Went Wrong for San Juan in Game 1 against Pampanga?

Game 1 of the best-of-3 North Division semifinal series against the Pampanga Giant Lanterns, the San Juan Knights were nowhere near their dominant form as they allowed the Pampanga to come within a defensive stop away from forcing an overtime period. Fortunately, PBA-bound Mike Ayonayon was there to save the night to defending champions as Ayonayon drained a difficult floater at the buzzer to give San Juan an 86-84 win. As great as this win is for the Knights, they can't be content with the kind of performance that they had last night. If anything, their numbers showed their flaws- the same flaws that almost doomed them during their quarterfinal series against the Pasay Voyagers. It also didn't help San Juan that Larry Rodriquez had to be stretchered off the court after sustaining an injury in the fourth quarter. 

Offensive Struggles

Sure, John Wilson led the team in scoring with 21 points while three other San Juan players scored in double digits as well but efficiency-wise, it was an off-night for the Knights.

The Knights only shot 39% from the field, 42% from the two-point area, and a woeful 33% shooting from long distance. Mike Ayonayon and John Wilson combined for 4 for 15 shooting from the three-point line. Ayonayon finished with 12 points although he had 5 of the 13 turnovers of San Juan. 

48 Free Throw Attempts for Pampanga

One of the reasons why the Giant Lanterns were able to stick within striking distance against the defending champions was because of their aggressive to get to the free-throw line as a result of the Knights' committing 29 personal fouls. 6 Knights were called for 3 or more fouls with Art Aquino being called for 5. And given the final score, San Juan was fortunate that Pampanga failed to capitalize on those fouls as the Giants only made 28 of their 41 attempts from the line.

Bad Habit of Blowing Double-Digit Leads

One bad habit that the San Juan Knight should throw away heading into Game 2 of their semifinal series and beyond is their tendency to relax and let their opponents come back from a double-digit hole. They had double-digit leads against Pasay in the quarterfinals and yet, they needed heroics of John Wilson to bail the team out. Game 1 almost had an identical outcome with Mike Ayonayon making the game-winning shot being the difference.  In short, the Knights need to stop relaxing even with a big lead especially against Pampanga who had 5 players scoring in double digits in Game 1. 

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