WE HAVE TO PLAY HARDER – CONE
Fresh from a grand slam finish, Purefoods Star is now in the cellar with a 0-2 card.
Yet coach Tim Cone feels he’s in quite familiar territory.
“It’s a familiar position, but I don’t enjoy being down 0-2,” he said.
Last season, the team also languished at or near the cellar at the start of the conference before stepping on the gas going into the playoffs.
Injuries are to blame for the early setbacks.
Marc Pingris sat out their first two games after his stint with Gilas to rest, while Ian Sangalang suffered a partial ACL tear in their first game of the season against Alaska. Also not helping is James Yap being sidelined in their last game after suffering an injury in his right calf.
Cone explains, “James felt a twitch in his calf on Saturday in practice and he came to the game, but felt the same twitch in his calf and he said he wanted to play and try. We said we’ll see if he can go. He felt good in the beginning but it got worse.”
Coach Tim took responsibility for sitting out his stars to avoid aggravating their injuries.
“It was really my decision. James still wanted to try it out, but my feeling is it’s just early in the season and we can’t afford to send him out there and make it worse, then suddenly lose him for four to six weeks. I decided to hold him out,” he said. “Ping came to practice on Saturday, but he’s been off for three weeks. He’s not in game shape. He wanted to play too, but I said no. He’s scheduled for two games so we’re keeping him scheduled to keep him off for two games. But now, we have four days of practice before our next game, so he should be at par.”
Cone already accepted the loss of Sangalang for the season, saying, “It’s an ACL tear, a partial tear, but a partial tear is the same with a full tear when it comes to ACL. They have to repair that. We’ll be without him.”
Cone hopes that their acquisition of veteran Don Allado will help them in their bid to retain their Philippine Cup title.
“Don is not going to replace the youth of Ian, his ability to score and rebound inside. Ian’s truly a great player. Although people talk about him, I really think he’s a great player,” Cone said. “Don will come out and help us with our execution. He understands the triangle very well, and I think he’ll help the second group execute.”
The two-time Grand Slam coach said that the Hotshots are still having difficulty in reigniting their hunger every game, as he said, “We’re having a hard time remembering how hard you have to play in this league. We kind of floated here and there, we got a little determined more at the end of the third quarter, but I think tonight’s game against San Miguel is a pretty good beginning for us. It’s a good start for us to start on playing better.” (RL)
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