American reinforcement Tony Mitchell has been the Star Hotshots’ anchor especially in their first four games of the Commissioner’s Cup, pacing the team with norms of 22.0 points and 15.5 rebounds.
But on Sunday night at the import-laden conference’s version of the Manila Clasico, coach Tim Cone and the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel pulled tricks from their sleeve to stop the 6-foot-8 tenacious rebounder.
“Mitchell is a dynamic import and we did a great job against him tonight,” said the 19-time PBA champion coach moments after the Barangay dismantled the Hotshots through a second half surge, 113-96, at a loaded SM Mall of Asia Arena.
“He’s normally a very, very active import, hard to defend because of his activity level,” Cone added. “He’s really good in the open court, he’s flying everywhere when he gets to the open court, so we did a good job in getting back.
“But our bigs were very active with him and had good focus especially in the second half in defending him.”
The 58-year-old tactician was true. It was his frontline that made all the necessary efforts to contain the former Detroit Pistons role player. Mitchell may have managed to pile up 22 markers, but he only shot 9-of-21 from the floor.
Aside from his 42 percent shooting clip — far from his 52.47 percent in his last four games, Mitchell also had a hard time chalking up rebounds. Against Ginebra, he only had nine — six and a half notches down from his average.
“Aware lang kami,” said Ginebra center Japeth Aguilar, who is the tallest player in Ginebra’s active player right now at 6-foot-9.
“Nandoon lagi yung opposite big man. ‘Pag magro-roll [siya], may kukuha sa kanya.
“Basta aware lang kami. Yun lagi nasa isip namin. ‘Pag magka-cut si Mitchell, nandoon yung help. Kahit pa-move pa lang siya papunta sa paint, nandoon na yung defense,” added Aguilar, who finished with 12 points and two blocks.
If Aguilar had a hand in stopping Mitchell, Ginebra import Justin Brownlee did not just stop him — he got the best of Mitchell, as his offensive artillery exposed the latter’s weak defensive coverage on one-on-one situations.
Mitchell’s defense, especially on the low block, against Brownlee was astoundingly highlighted in the game’s payoff period, where Brownlee scored 11 of his 30 points — shooting shots right in Mitchell’s defense.
And that started to be the downfall of the former NBA cager, as he was left nothing but frustrated as things were not going in his and Star’s favor.
“Yeah, he got a little frustrated,” said Brownlee, who added 15 rebounds, six assists, and four blocked shots to his statline.
“[But] I don’t think it more so me, but maybe the fans. We have great fans who support us and they do a really good job of taunting the opponent. I think it was all the fans, that didn’t have nothing to do with me.”
Still, Brownlee deflected the credit to all his teammates, who did a good job of not only stopping Star’s import, but also the Hotshots as a whole as they only limited them to 98 points — five points shy of their 103.0 points per contest.
“Well, he’s a tough guy, very physical. It wasn’t just me, though. It was a collective group with the team. Coach Tim, he had a really good game plan for him.
“So I don’t think it was just me, I think it was a group effort with coach Tim’s game plan and the team, the way we played,” shared Brownlee.
