Christian Standhardinger doesn’t mind pushing himself as he’d rather be fighting in the trenches with Barangay Ginebra instead of waiting to recover fully.
The Fil-German workhorse has yet to reach max health owing to the knee injury he suffered days prior to the PBA Governors’ Cup, but chooses to play through it with the Kings’ rotation, especially the frontline, thinning out due to injuries.
Japeth Aguilar continues to miss games due to an MCL sprain. Raymond Aguilar is still recovering from an ankle injury he suffered against Northport last week. Meanwhile, Sidney Onwubere is still searching for form following a back issue.
“I’m OK. I’m pushing it a bit,” said the 33-year-old Standhardinger. “I’ve played through worse, you guys know that. There are no excuses.”
The one-time BPC exemplified will against San Miguel Friday night, leading the crowd darlings’ charge against his former team with 29 points on a 57-percent clip from the floor, on top of 10 rebounds and seven assists in 42 minutes.
“I’m trying my best. Like you can only try your best,” said Standhardinger, who was averaging just 10.5 markers and 8.5 boards prior to the match.
Unfortunately, his efforts went in vain as Ginebra fell short in completing a late-game comeback, 99-102, absorbing its second loss in a row.
It was one of those games where somebody like the 6-foot-9 Aguilar would’ve helped a great deal, according to his former Gilas teammate.
“Obviously, we’re missing Japeth. As you can see I think they outrebounded us by a lot. That’s just Japeth right there,” he said as the Kings lost the rebounds, 51-61, with 18 of San Miguel’s caroms from June Mar Fajardo alone.
“Normally in the past, I was guarding June Mar and I’d box him out and Japeth gets the rebound. But now, the ball flies. And then there’s like three different guards tipping it,” added the 6-foot-8 forward.
“And there’s no chance for me you know, till three times it tips, June Mar got me under the basket. But if somebody grabs it right away, it would be much easier.”
Standhardinger, though, isn’t offering any excuses, and hopes that they can all find a solution to that particular problem while the Barangay awaits the return of Aguilar – and the others to regain their health.
“There cannot be an excuse, we need to figure it out, and we need to adjust and find a solution for that. I hope that Japeth would be back before the playoffs start or within the playoffs,” he said.
“We just have to go back, adjust and figure out what to improve on and hopefully come back with a victory.”
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The second game of each PBA gameday is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
