Asi seeks payback vs Pals

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BY NOLI CORTEZ

COCA-COLA has long been relegated to the Smart PBA Philippine Cup’s wildcard phase, but there’s no denying the Tigers want to finish the eliminations in a blaze of glory.

Sure to lead the way is center Asi Taulava who has an axe to grind against Talk N Text management whom he believes gave up on him.

There is no better way of doing that than beating the Phone Pals today in the match ending the eliminations at the Astrodome.

The Phone Pals need to win to finish tied with Magnolia at 10-8 and forge a playoff with the Beverage Masters for the third and last outright quarterfinals slot.

Red Bull takes on Purefoods in the other match but even if they lose the Bulls will still advance to the quarterfinals alongside early qualifier Alaska due to a better quotient.

If the Phone Pals lose, they will be relegated to the wildcard phase, a knockout battle where they will be meeting no other team but Coke.

According to reports swirling around, Taulava is aching to exact revenge on TNT, which dealt him to Coke last Nov. 16 for Ali Peek and a first round draft pick.

Whether to further stress the importance of the TNT-Coke match and further drum up interest, the PBA has seen it fit to switch the game times of today’s games from their original schedule.

Even TNT coach Derick Pumaren has admitted hearing about Taulava being all fired up for today’s match, although he’d rather go into generalities.

"Coca-Cola, for sure, will be a tough challenge with Asi up against us for the first time," said Pumaren. "We’re still in control of our fate and we just have to come out and do our work."

Coke coach Binky Favis just laughed off the reports.

"Alam mo naman si Asi, laging gigil," he said. "We’ve told him he has to move on, but still you can’t take that away from Asi."

Favis, however, denied he is using what he has termed as the "Asi Factor" as additional motivation for his players. For him, more important is how they’ll rise to the challenge of ending a three-game slide and going into the wildcard phase with a positive frame of mind.

"Tingnan na lang natin dahil sila kailangang-kailangang manalo. Kami, kailangang gumanda ang laro," he stated.

"Alam n’yo naman kami, veritable crash course ang nangyari because of the new players and injuries. Kaya nga kahit ang improvement level gumanda na, still hindi pa rin nakukuha ng husto ang chemistry. Kaya nga bawa’t game learning experience para sa amin."

Source: http://www.malaya.com.ph/jan16/spor2.htm