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."
