San Juan Must be Cautious Against Pasay: Things to Avoid in Game 2

If there's one thing that makes the Pasay Voyagers a formidable playoff foe against the two-peat seeking San Juan Knights, it's the fact that the defending champions had to sweat it out in order to escape with a win against the Voyagers as evident from the Knights' 74-72 win last June where Pasay came back from being down 24-5 at the end of the first quarter. And in last Saturday's Game 1 of the best-of-3 North quarterfinal series, Pasay even came out with a 24-13 lead after the first ten minutes of play and led as high as 14 points before San Juan fought back and secured 75-74 win to inch closer to the North semifinals. And if not to the late-game heroics of John Wilson who scored 10 of his 11 points in the final 10 minutes, the Knights would have been in a difficult situation coming into tomorrow Game 2.

And Coach Randy Alcantara is certainly worried about the tendency of the Knights to have a slow start on some games only to rely on the heroics of John Wilson in the endgame. While Wilson has proven his capability to score during the game's crucial moments, the Knights can't keep doing that especially a team like the Voyagers in a playoff game. 

That's the first thing that San Juan needs to avoid : a slow start to the game.

Pasay has the players to get things going on the offensive end for them and if San Juan starts the game with a slow pace, that can give the Voyagers the confidence to keep going and force a winner-take-all Game 3. And no, avoiding a slow start isn't going to do the trick alone for the Knights. 

Last June, the Knights ended the first quarter with a 24-5 lead. In the next three quarters, the Knights only scored 16, 19, and 15 points respectively while allowing Pasay to score 26, 25, and 16 respectively which explained why the Knights only won by two points. In last Saturday's Game 1, Pasay scored 24 points twice: in the 1st and 3rd quarter respectively while San Juan scored 28 points in the first half before exploding for 47 big points in the final 2 quarters. And, 10 of the Knights' 22 points in the final frame came from John Wilson.

You can't simply keep winning by having an inconsistent scoring game. San Juan must keep on pounding the Pasay regardless of how big the gap is because if their defense went down and the scorers of Pasay had a good night's sleep the night before, Pasay could really turn the tables. In other words, it's about consistency.  

And speaking of having a slow start, John Wilson can't keep having a game when he only has a point in the first half only to pour it out in the final quarter.  John Wilson- one of the league's top scorers, must be the one who set the scoring tone for the Knights and show that he is indeed one of the best scorers we have in the MPBL today. Wilson must regain his shooting touch tomorrow and do more than just his 3 for 8 field goal shooting in Game 1 that also saw him go 1 for 5 from the three-point line. That's not the John Wilson that San Juan needs for tomorrow,

Another thing that San Juan must avoid tomorrow? Turnovers and fouls.

San Juan turned the ball over 21 times in Game 1 which resulted in 30 points off turnovers for the Voyagers. While Pasay turned the ball over 19 times, San Juan didn't capitalize much of those Pasay miscues as they only scored 15 points off those mistakes.  The Knights also committed 27 fouls which allowed Pasay to go 22 for 27 from the free-throw line. Achie Inigo, who scored a game-leading 24 points for the Voyagers, went 10 for 13 from the free-throw line. You can't allow those numbers and still expect a comfortable win.  

While San Juan is still the favorite in this series, the fact that Pasay was able to stick within striking distance throughout Game 1 despite Dhon Reverente only finishing with 8 points and 11 rebounds, is an indication that the Pasay Voyagers can beat the Knights and if the Knights won't avoid the things mentioned above, there would be a Game 3. 

Photo is from the Philippine News Agency