Devon Scott isn’t taking all the credit to himself despite coming up with the stop that practically kept San Miguel alive in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup semis.
The American forward received praise from head coach Leo Austria for his ‘winning block’ on Kobey Lam with 2.5 seconds left that led to the 98-96 result over Bay Area, but said that the whole Beermen V made it possible.
“It’s a team effort. We came to an agreement on what we’re gonna do on defense and everybody executed,” he told reporters moments after the thrilling encounter, Sunday night at a packed Philsports Arena in Pasig.
“I just happened to be the one who ended up making the block, but it was the five guys on defense. Not just me,” he furthered.
Scott added that his clutch swat — against the same man that frustrated SMB in the series opener last Wednesday — would not matter had it not been for the booming trifecta Simon Enciso hit on the other end prior to his stop.
“The block doesn’t mean anything if Simon [didn’t] hit that shot,” he said.
“If me and Simon don’t talk in the huddle about what we’re doing on defense before the block happens, I’m not even in that position.
“So at the end of the day, as I said, we had to get into position. The defense we played all game, put us there to win the game. I happened to make the block but it was a full team effort to win that game,” he reiterated.
Enciso nailed the go-ahead triple from the right corner off a CJ Perez kick out with 10.8 seconds remaining, writing eventually the game’s final count.
It was actually his fourth and final trey of the game on the way to finishing with 16 points, on top of four rebounds and seven assists in 38 minutes — all that he went scoreless in Game Two a couple of nights ago.
“We came into practice locked in, and just worried about one game at a time,” offered Enciso, who’s now in his third conference with the ball club.
“That’s all you really can do as a basketball player — you can only control what you can control. Luckily we came out locked in, we executed, we came out with the win,” the seven-year pro furthered.
Of course, he’s glad that his efforts got preserved thanks to Scott, who not only came through on defense but also turned in his best performance of the series thus far with 25 points, 14 rebounds, two assists, a steal, and two blocks.
“I’ve said this since I’ve been here. We have probably the deepest team in the league. We have guys, at any given moment, that can score the ball and play great defense,” said the 28-year-old from Ohio.
“My teammates always do a good job of putting me in position to make shots and take shots. At the end of the day, they do what they do every single game, I just made shots today,” Scott added.
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