How fitting that Shabazz Muhammad sealed his first PBA win with San Miguel through the very same shot he struggled with in his debut.
The NBA veteran sank both of his free throws with 11.4 seconds left, and the Beermen went on to beat Rain or Shine, 104-100, to bounce back in the 2022 Governors’ Cup, Thursday night at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
He went a total of 8-for-10 from the charity stripe, indeed a marked improvement from the 5-of-12 clip he had against Magnolia last Sunday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo where they absorbed a harsh 87-104 beatdown.
“I was just concentrating,” said the 29-year-old.
“And I wanna have those free throws at that time and win the game for our team. And that’s what I did.”
It was a sterling performance overall for Muhamma, who finished with 33 points on 44-percent shooting from the field and 21 rebounds.
And so, he deservingly earned the praise of head coach Leo Austria, who lauded the energy he brought for the perennial contenders.
“‘Yung energy niya ibang-iba, and then ‘yung kanyang rebounding. And makikita mo ‘yung attitude niya towards the game, he would like to score,” said the champion mentor, who’s now with his third import this conference,
“In our first loss with him, he was so disappointed and he told us that he will bounce back. That’s why he was so focused in this game.”
Austria was also glad about how Muhammad responded when told to involve the other Beermen more, which led to him racking up six assists.
“Sometimes, gusto niyang umiskor nang umiskor. But I told him before na you should involve your teammates, and play according to the flow of the game. That’s what happened naman,” he said.
“But I’m always giving them a chance, especially in the transition, ‘yung open court, dahil we know he could score in transition,” he added.
Muhammad, though, didn’t take all the credit to himself and insisted that it was a collective effort that enabled San Miguel to pull off the victory, which kept their hopes of punching a coveted Top Four ticket alive.
Well, aside from him, Terrence Romeo and Vic Manuel helped out in the endgame to ward off the Elasto Painters, who gave the Beermen a major scare after being down by as much as 19 points in the first half.
“I thought it was a great team effort tonight. We all played as a team,” said Muhammad. “It’s just a very tough team, you know, we were up and they got back after on the offensive end.
“Lucky to pull it out at the end.”
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