The Star Hotshots warned against complacency against the dangerous San Miguel Beermen after grabbing a 1-0 lead in their best-of-five Oppo PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinal showdown.
“Hindi pa namin iniisip yung finals. Kasi 1-0 pa lang. Kung ano yung nasa harapan namin ngayon, yun lang muna,” Mark Barroca told InterAksyon.
“Hindi kami tumitingin sa future. Mahirap magbilang sa San Miguel. Nakita mo yung dating ginawa nila sa Alaska coming from 0-3, naka-straight sila ng 4-0. San Miguel yan, champion team yan.”
The face-off between Star and San Miguel is a rematch of last year’s Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals where the Beermen, holding a twice-to-beat, dispatched the Hotshots.
But Barroca said that clash was a thing of the past.
“Coming into this series, parang tabla, 0-0 talaga mas walang advantage kumpara last year twice-to-win kami against SMB. Mas nakakapag-adjust kami kasi ilang games pa ito. Wala kang aalalahanin na parang do-or-die kaagad. One game at a time lang, mas relax kami ngayon. Hindi kamukha nung twice-to-beat yung kalaban hahanap ka talaga ng paraan. Ngayon, mas may kumpiyansa kami, lalo na nanalo kami ng Game 1,” Barroca said.
Import Ricardo Ratliffe believes that the Hotshots are a better squad than last year.
“I just think that it’s a whole new team, a whole new system. We just take more pride on defense. With Coach Jason (Webb), we were pretty good last year, but I think this team, it’s defensive scheme is a little bit better. That’s the difference,” Ratliffe said.
“We don’t worry much about offense, we worry more about our defense because defense starts our offense. I think that’s the biggest thing. Everybody’s working on defense. It starts with our captain, Rafi (Reavis), he does a good job on defense. We start preaching on defense and against the best offensive team, we feel we’re the best defensive team, so it’s a good matchup.”
But the Hotshots definitely learned some lessons from their semifinal setback against Barangay Ginebra in last year’s Philippine Cup where Star fell short of making it to the final after losing in Game Seven.
“I’m very happy kasi back-to-back semis kami. But I’ve learned a lot last conference. It’s not easy to be in the semis and not easy to go to the finals,” Star coach Chito Victolero said. “We’ve learned a lot us a group. I think yun yung dala namin ngayon, na natuto kami last conference as a group.
“I know, individually, lagi kong sinasabi may mga experience sila. But as a group, ito na yun. We keep on competing every game and sana yung mga susunod pang games maging ganito. Yun lang naman yung chances namin. We know mahirap talunin yung San Miguel. Kailangan lang na magtulung-tulong. We need to stay positive and stay together the whole game.”
Paul Lee and Allein Maliksi both hope that Star can capitalize on its 1-0 advantage.
“Yung 1-0 wala pa yun eh, nag-1-0 rin kami against Ginebra (last conference sa semis). Hindi naman sukatan yun. Focus muna kami sa Game 2 kasi ang motto ng team is 1-0 every game. So hindi kami tumitingin. Game 1 tapos na, we’re focusing on Game 2. Kaya 1-0 lang ulit,” Lee said.
“Very optimistic kami na naka-1-0 kami and sana madala naming yung momentum and yung learning namin this Game 1,” Maliksi said.
