Mikey Williams is expecting to be a marked man yet again as TNT defends its PBA Philippine Cup title against long-time rivals San Miguel Beer.
“I’m expecting them to do the same thing that any other San Miguel team that I’ve played so far has done,” offered the league’s reigning scoring king, who has already faced all three SMC teams in the playoffs.
Williams and the Tropang Giga are coming off a semis battle against Magnolia, where the 30-year-old got tested by one of the league’s best defensive teams.
After firing 28 points in Game Two, he would never score above 15 in the series. An array of defenders was thrown his way — from the backcourt tandem of Mark Barroca and Jio Jalalon, to wingers Rome Dela Rosa and Adrian Wong.
But that never concerned the former fourth overall pick. In fact, Williams was glad to have showcased his passing as scoring became difficult.
He notched 10 assists in Game Three, and would not tally dimes below five for the remainder of the semis, which TNT won in six games.
“You know, people say I was defended well. I think they did a great job on me. But, they made me pass the ball more,” Williams said. “I’m a willing passer … The overall outcome of us just getting wins was most important to me.”
Now, he’s anticipating the Beermen defense to go hard on him once the best-of-seven title bout tips off on Sunday at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
It would be the second time that Williams is battling the only five-peat Philippine Cup winners in the playoffs. He had met them in the semis of the previous all-Filipino wars, which the Tropa won in seven games.
The Fil-Am cager got challenged in that series as well mainly by two-time Defensive Player of the Year Chris Ross, and so he expects his good pal and a surplus of other defenders to go in front of him in the upcoming clash.
“They have Chris Ross, or I’m thinking maybe CJ [Perez] or Simon [Enciso] on me,” said Williams. “And I just gotta be on my A-game.
“This is for all the money, you know. This is for everything that we prayed and hoped for at the start of the season and I just think I gotta be me in order for us to be successful. But first it starts with the team and everything else follows.”
—
The second game of each PBA gameday is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
