The Beermen were totally, completely, devastatingly outcoached and outplayed in Game 1. It was a total mis-match - Coach Jong and his staff came prepared and had all the answers to everything that Coach Siot and his crew could come up with.
1) Defense - I couldn't, for the life of me, understand why the Beermen will insist on playing a 1-2-2 zone against the Gin Kings. Really! Why play a zone against a team with Helterbrand, Salvacion, Tubid, Baguio, Lanete, Intal - all excellent to above-average three point shooters. And boy, what about Paul Artadi? The Gin Kings started building a good size lead right in the opening quarter when the Beermen started laying off Artadi, letting him hit three 3-pointers. Of course, Artadi burned them. I'm not really sure if Coach Siot and the Beermen have been watching PBA games this past few months (apparently not) but they should have at least realized that Artadi has developed a decent 3-point shot.
I also couldn't fathom why the Beermen kept on playing zone when they have the advantage in terms of manpower. They have two sets of starting fives and their reserve can act as the starting five for a mediocre team like Coke or Red Bull. Let them chase their opponents for three minutes and sit them down if they are all tuckered up. Talk all you want about hustle but the zone defense opens up a lot of opportunities for offensive rebounding (there was a stretch when the Beermen were sticking to their porous zone when Lanete, a player barely standing 6-feet, was able to haul down 3 offensive rebounds). Since the Gin Kings is a very good perimeter team, whenever they miss (rarely, in this game) all rebounds and looseballs fall into the zone area where there are no defensive players. I don't have the benefit of statistics right now, but I bet the Gin Kings have an edge in offensive rebounds and/or field goal attempts.
Ginebra's offense emanates from the perimeter. They have very few potent inside threats aside from Noel, who is more comfortable facing the basket. They love to drive and kick-out to shooters, keep the defenders off their feet. Their Bigs can not create shots for themselves but they are persistent in turning garbage into points. They used this to their advantage, especially when the Beermen started gambling for steals and losing their defensive position.
Mark my words - the Beermen will lose if they keep on clinging to their lazy, porous, inutile zone defense.
2) Offense - The Beermen ran some of the most complicated set-plays that I have seen in the PBA (well, maybe except Alaska in its prime). As if this is not enough, Coach Siot decided to try some new things, for example, a double-pick at the top of the key with both forward and center sliding down. Unfortunately (for us Beermen fans, at least), these plays are confusing the players. The spacing is horrible. There is one too many plays where JayWash was actually screened off by Marc Pingris! The Beermen should realize that the strength of Ginebra's defense is with their guards. All the guards of Ginebra play very good defense with their feet, that's why Tubid draws a good amount of offensive fouls. And their Bigs have very active hands. Now, the Beermen could adjust to this by changing the angles of the pick-and-roll attacks (say instead of starting at the top of the key, start the play at the left hand corner), having Washington or Pingris or even Danny I. run through screens instead of the guards. The key is to get the Ginebra Bigs out of the lane, commit to smaller defenders, and get them into early foul trouble. The Villanueva-Washington and Cortez-Pingris two-man sets were very effective late in the game because the Ginebra Bigs were laying off the SMB guards, giving them more room to operate and giving the SMB Bigs more space in front of the basket.
Tex Winters once said that offense in basketball is all about location, location, location. That's why spacing is very important. Obviously, Hontiveros is having problems with Tubid but this is due partly to the inability of the Beermen to space themselves properly and commit to setting up good screens for him. Pennisi was benched during most of the game and he is the only one who really set hard picks for the shooters.
Last thing about offense, I couldn't understand why the Beermen stopped running plays through Freeman. He will be double-teamed and could create opportunities for his teammates.
3) Match-ups - This is where Coach Jong's brilliance as a coach is most evident. He is faced with the question of whether to stick with his three-guard lineup or adjust to the Beermens tall guard-forward line. He decided to stick with Artadi, Helterbrand, and Tubid (alternately Lanete, Baguio, Salvacion) and force match-up problems for the Beermen. And, lo and behold, the SMB coaching staff was totally unprepared! No set plays for Washington or Pennisi who are often covered by Gin Kings a foot smaller than them. No set plays to put the forwards closer to the basket to give them the opportunity to collect offensive rebounds. Worse, the smaller forwards of the Gin Kings were able to take advantage of their quickness and either create turn-overs or get a jump at loose balls.
4) Pace - This is one area where I missed the Beermen of old (ironically, under Coach Jong). The PBA doesn't have stats on offensive efficiency but I bet the Beermen is way behind on this. The Beermen kept on running, trying to match the pace of the Gin Kings. This has two effects: it keeps the crowd in the game and it generates a lot of possessions. The Beermen had two options - slow down the game (limit possessions) or run-and-gun. Despite their superior manpower, they chose to run-and-gun instead of grinding it out, getting into the foul line, executing well, limiting their turn-overs (which fuels the Gin Kings' fastbreak attack), and setting up for mid-range to inside shots. Again, really???!!
Finally, I have been harsh on the PBA and its officiating in a number of articles but they have improved significantly for this series. Not perfect but not as horrible as the officiating during the semis.
I hope the Beermen will bounce back and learn from this debacle. The longer the series, the more we fans could be treated to very good basketball from two quality, classy teams.
Ciao!
