Coach Luigi Trillo. PBA IMAGES / Nuki Sabio
MANILA, Philippines—Bodies are crashing to the floor, elbows are flying, and the intensity is just a notch higher—Alaska coach Luigi Trillo reminded his players that this is not another sport, this is just PBA finals basketball.
Trillo reminded the Aces—who won 87-70 over crowd-darling Ginebra in game one of the 2013 PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals last Wednesday—to just absorb the blows and come back right up.
“When we get the lead, we understand the situation: it’s going to be physical and borderline hurt. They need to understand that and get up again,” said Trillo.
“Our boys need to understand that they’re going to get hits to the face, elbows to the face. This is the finals, we know that,” he added.
But while all the grabbing and pulling while jockeying for position under the hoop is nothing that surprises many, the extra push or nudge in a heated match might just cause someone to blow a fuse.
And to that, Trillo asked his players: Stand down and leave all the talking to the coach.
“I told the players, I’ll do the talking to refs. There were a lot of hard fouls on Calvin [Abueva], even on Robert [Dozier]. We knew they were going to put a lot of pressure—they grab, hold and we needed to be stronger,” said Trillo.
“You have to adjust to the way the calls are being made,” he added.
Abueva, the Aces’ forward whose battery doesn’t seem to run empty, is always at the receiving end of those hits. He slams to the floor almost as much as he gets a rebound. And by that standard, that’s plenty.
But down the stretch, Abueva—bruised and exhausted—still always comes out in full strength.
And that relentlessness on both ends is just what Trillo looks for in his players, if the Aces ever want to shut the door on the Kings as quickly as they can.
“When we were in the semis last time, I felt like some of us were just happy to be there against Talk ’N Text. We were disappointed.”
“Coming in this series, we need to take care of this again. We need to be tougher, stronger. We can’t let up,” he said.
Game two is set on Friday at the Mall of Asia Arena.