San Juan to Strengthen Hold to Top Seed Against Zamboanga

Since their 5-point defeat at the hands of the Manila Stars, the San Juan Knights have been on a tear, winning their last 4 games- including a 70-67 escape win against the Iloilo Royals. 

While the Knights, led by the league's second-leading scorer, John Wilson, are already assured of a playoff berth, there's one more thing that the Knights wanted to secure in their last 3 games of the regular season- the top spot in the team standings, particularly in the North Division. 

With a 24-3 slate heading into tomorrow's important game against the Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines, the Knights are barely holding the top spot as the Manila Stars themselves are holding a 23-5 record with 2 more games on their schedule. In other words, every win counts even though the Knights are already playoff-bound. 

On the other hand, the Zamboanga Sardines of Alvin Pasaol and company are still in the hunt for a playoff spot as they are tied with the Iloilo Royals for the fourth and fifth spots in the South Division standings. Both Zamboanga and Iloilo own an identical 17-11 record. And considering that the Sardines will then face another heavyweight in the form of the Manila Stars on February 10, 2020, That alone makes the game tomorrow against the Knights a must-win for Zamboanga.

Question: What will the Knights need to do for them to beat Alvin Pasaol et al?

First and foremost, the Knights will have to put their defensive shields up and try to contain Alvin Pasaol. Pasaol, for one, has been one of the best amateur stars in the country and is certainly one of the best products of the University of the East basketball program. He's currently the MPBL's eighth-leading scorer, averaging 16.4 points per game. In their 75-63 victory against the Muntinlupa Cagers, Pasaol led the team with 23 points on 66% field goal shooting. He also torched the Cagers with his 5 for 6 shooting from rainbow distance. 

However, Alvin Pasaol's ability to score at ease isn't the only problem that the Knights will have to look at come tomorrow's game.

If you are to look back at the close game between the Knights and the Royals, it was Jhonard Clarito who top-scored for San Juan with 22 points on 46% field goal shooting. John Wilson? Oh, he finished with 12 points on an ugly 4 for 17 field goal shooting. What was worse what the fact that he shot 1 for 10 from the three-point line. Is he now trying to copy James Harden's stats? As a team, the Knights shot 30% from the three-point line. Fortunately for them, the Royals themselves weren't better either as Rey Publico and company shot themselves in the foot by going 7 for 36 from three. 

In other words, the Knights of Coach Randy Alcantara will have to come with the right attitude tomorrow because they will be facing a team that has a reason to beat them. It's like saying that Zamboanga will need to beat the Knights so that the Sardines will have high morale heading into their slugfest against the Manila Stars. 

There's no doubt that the Knights will have the upper hand in tomorrow's game as they are in fact the leading scorer as they are putting up 90 points per game while Zamboanga is only averaging 79 points per night. With both squads having an equal number of capable scorers, it will now boil down as to which team will score more efficiently than the other. That and which team will defend better. 

Photo is from the Facebook page of the San Juan Knights