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LEAGUE-LEADING ALASKA WARY OF AIR21
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Alaska coach Luigi Trillo has been following all Air21’s games closely that he’s convinced they face an uphill climb in Antipolo Friday.
“If you look at the season of Air21, you’ll see they lost all their games very close. They even won all their preseason games. They play with no let up,” said Trillo.
“Last time we played Air21 last conference, (Mark) Isip hut that turnaround at the buzzer. They beat us real good. And they added Michael Dunigan who completes that team with a post option,” added Trillo, citing reasons why he’s wary of the Express.
Though they’re four games clear of the Express, the tournament pacesetters anticipate a battle as they face off in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Ynares Sports Center in Antipolo at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
“Talent is not a question anymore in that team with the additions of Dunigan, (Mike) Cortez and (KG) Canaleta. These guys can play. Their record is not a reflection of how well they’ve been playing in this conference,” said Trillo.
Truly, the Express have been playing well, except that they’re not able to pull through in the end in most of their games so far.
They had just ended a four-game skid with a 106-94 victory over the Globalport Batang Pier and their new import Walter Sharpe.
“Finally, everything fell into place, and we got a win easing the pain of our disappointing losses in our previous games,” said Air21 coach Franz Pumaren.
“Puro sayang, especially the last game. Good thing, Michael (Dunigan) was able to recover from his booboo (in the last game against Meralco Wednesday),” Pumaren added.
After a triumphant conference debut versus the Barangay Ginebra Kings, the Express dropped their next five assignments against the Talk n Text Tropang Texters, the Barako Bull Energy, the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, the Petron Blaze Boosters and the Meralco Bolts by an average margin of only 3.6 points.
It’s timely the Express have got over the hump before facing the hottest team in the league at the moment.
In their most previous outing, the Aces held down Renaldo Balkman to six points on a poor 3-of-16 clip, sending the prolific but temperamental import to the wild outburst that caused his lifetime ban from the league.
The Aces stopped the Boosters’ five-game streak and regained solo leadership at 6-1.
Cinch to make the playoffs, the Aces hope to sustain their drive to finish first or second and gain twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals.
“That’s the goal,” said Trillo. (SB)
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