MANILA – Magnolia coach Chito Victolero played down the growing physicality that has heated up the PBA Philippine Cup Finals that’s knotted at one game apiece.
San Miguel Beermen star Chris Ross believes the Hotshots – or one particular player – resorted to “cheap shots” that marred the best-of-seven series, more so in SMB’s 92-77 Game 2 victory last Sunday.
But Victolero insisted the physicality has been nothing but normal for a matchup of this magnitude.
“I think wala naman (grabeng physicality),” Victolero insisted in a short chat after practice on Wednesday. “That’s part of the game. This is the Finals, this is the championship, so mas madami pa sigurong physicality before.”
“Sabi ko nga, wala naman kaming binabago sa depensa namin; ngayon pa ba kami magbabago kung kailan Finals?” he added. “So wala naman kaming babaguhin. Iyong physical naman, nandiyan lang iyan lagi, hindi mawawala iyan.”
Victolero believes the physicality has more or less been the same since the two semifinal series between Magnolia and NLEX, and SMB and Ginebra.
“Napanood mo naman iyong NLEX namin, napanood rin naman iyong Ginebra and San Miguel, so halos parehas lang iyong physicality,” Victolero said.
While Ross feels the physicality has been growing, Hotshots’ rotation continued to decrease as Justin Melton is out for the rest of the series due to a hamstring injury he sustained in the semifinals and aggravated in Game 1 of the Finals series.
“Four weeks iyong (recovery noong) kanya e,” Victolero said of Melton, who sat on the sidelines in Game 2 as he joined Marc Pingris on the injured list.
The healthy Hotshots enjoyed their two-day break before returning to practice on Tuesday, training up to Black Saturday on the eve of Game 3 on Easter Sunday.
“Wala e, ganoon talaga (no holiday),” Victolero said. “Sabi ko lang sa kanila, we will sacrifice a little bit dito sa Holy Week, but they understand naman. Kaya naman namin ginagawa ito dahil we want to achieve something.”
“Good thing we had two days of rest, it’s very important for the players, kasi sabi ko nga noon, almost three weeks na kami naglalaro, so magandang pahinga para sa mga bata, kasi at least kahit papaano, iyong system namin, nakapahinga sila, tapos magagawa namin,” he added. (Karlo Sacamos for SPIN.ph)
