Duke Crews returned to Rain or Shine Friday night, and provided some immediate impact to help the Elasto Painters earn their biggest win yet in the 2017 Commissioner’s Cup as they surprised the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel.
But the 6-foot-8 forward wishes he could have played more effectively.
“I could have been more efficient,” said the American after their 118-112 victory at the Cuneta Astrodome.
Crews, who is fresh from a stint with the CLS Knights Surabaya in the Indonesian Basketball League, finished with monsters numbers of 28 points and 22 rebounds. However, he shot just 8-for-18, and committed five turnovers.
“But I played hard,” Crews quickly added.
Despite the high turnover count, Crews’s numbers were still impressive, and he did it against Ginebra. But the former ABL champion iterated that there he had made no conscious effort to play at that high a level because of their opponents.
“I play like that every night. It ain’t because it’s Ginebra,” said Crews, Rain or Shine’s import back in 2011 Commissioner’s Cup.
“That really doesn’t mean too much to me. I understand they’re the fan favorite but all I care about is winning.”
And indeed, Rain or Shine won, and Crews was one of the reasons why. For the enforcer, the win was not big because they took down one of the league’s giants, but it was all because the Elasto Painters got the job done.
“It’s huge because we’re 4-4 coming into this game and we needed the win. It ain’t big because it’s Ginebra, it could be anybody. It’s big because we needed to win and we got it,” said Crews.
