Just two days after absorbing a lackadaisical 93-98 loss to the Macau Wolf Warriors on their home floor, San Miguel Alab Pilipinas will once again be put to the test.
On Tuesday in the same venue, Alab plays host to OJ Mayo and the Taipei Fubon Braves, who are 6-3 in the 2019-20 ABL Season.
And Alab head coach Jimmy Alapag is bracing for another tough night.
Photo from ABL
“You know, this team has shown this early in the season that we can bounce back, similar to what happened the first game of the season against Mono. The biggest thing for these guys tonight is to recover,” he said after Alab’s first home loss that brought them down to 4-2.
“They have a quality team coming in with OJ Mayo, Maxie Esho coming in on Tuesday. So these guys gotta rest their mind and recover, so that our energy is much better come Tuesday, because we’re going to need it.”
Mayo, the third overall pick in the 2008 NBA Draft, has been spectacular for the Braves, averaging 22.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game.
Alapag knows where to begin with his boys for this game. It all boils down on how he preps his team.
The third-year tactician admitted that he was not able to ready Alab’s mindset heading into their game against the Wolf Warriors during the long break.
“You know, I didn’t have the guys ready to play tonight. I have to do a better job making sure that when that ball is thrown up to start the game, that we’re ready to play tonight. And that’s on me as a coach to make sure that I have my guys ready to play,” shared Alapag.
“We dug ourselves a hole early, and I just kind of set the tone for the game. It just seemed like we were always down eight, down five, down two… But we never could string enough stops and make enough plays just to settle our horses, whether it was needing a stop, grabbing the fifty-fifty ball, making a shot. It just seemed like we could never get over the hump, and you’re playing catch-up the whole game… It just seemed like we ran out of time. Credit to Macau, they came in and played well,” he continued.
Playing catch-up certainly got the better of Alab late.
Surviving Sam Deguara’s foul trouble for most of the game, the Philippine side was able to knot things up at 91-all late. However, Alab could not get stops, resulting a triple by Julian Boyd; a tough shot by Doug Herring; and a breakaway layup by Teng Zhi Keng.
On Tuesday, Alab’s determination is once again on the line, early in the season.
“We just got to be better.”
