INQUIRER Sports

GAME SUNDAY (Araneta Coliseum)
6 p.m.?Alaska vs Talk ?N Text

MANILA, Philippines?Chot Reyes doesn?t believe that he needs to press the panic button just about now.

In fact, he?s laid down a simple process for his Talk ?N Text crew to get back in the series.

?What we need to do is just have a balance of playing with a sense or urgency while keeping our focus,? Reyes told the Philippine Daily Inquirer Saturday after practice. ?It?s never time to press the panic button because we might really panic in the process.?

?We need to be able to negate Alaska?s edge in endgame poise and smarts,? he said. ?In the semifinals (against San Miguel), I thought heart alone could win it for us. But not against this Alaska team.?

Reyes tries to steer his Tropang Texters away from a fatal 0-3 hole in their best-of-seven series with the Aces for the KFC Philippine Cup at the Araneta Coliseum at 6 tonight, hoping that his main guns will finally be able to find their mark.

?We need to get Jimmy (Alapag) and Mac (Cardona) shooting well,? Reyes said while pointing out to the two guards? combined 7-of-40 shooting from three-point range in the first two games of the series.

?It?s hard to win with that kind of shooting,? he stressed. ?If you can recall, in Game 6 against San Miguel, Jimmy and Mac shot seven three-pointers each. And that was in just one game. Now both have shot seven in two games for themselves.?

That could probably be a tribute to how well the Aces have played Alapag and Cardona on defense, assigning different men on several occasions to give them different looks and feel.

The defense of the Aces has held down the Texters to just 93.5 points a contest, a far cry from the form they displayed in the Final Four, where they scored past the 100-point mark in each of the six games against the Beermen.