SAN MIGUEL Beer veteran and newly crowned ABL MVP Asi Taulava posts up against Indonesia import Steve Thomas. AUGUST DELA CRUZ
MANILA, Philippines — What will it take for Indonesia to beat San Miguel? The Warriors better make their three points shots.
Despite a 70-75 setback on Friday night in game one of the Asean Basketball League (ABL) finals at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig, Warriors’ head coach Todd Purves liked what he saw.
Expect for the part where the defending champions shot 4-of-21 from downtown.
“We did a good job rebounding, we did a good job taking care of the ball and I thought we played very hard on defense,” Purves told the reporters.
“But if you shoot that bad, you’ll never beat a team as good as San Miguel.”
The Warriors, who were up the entire first half, were only outrebounded by one, 36-37, and even commited five less miscues than the Beermen, 10-15.
But down the stretch, Indonesia had no answer to veteran Asi Taulava, whose jumpers in the final minute proved to be the dagger for the Warriors.
They have a chance to steal one at San Miguel’s home turf on Sunday in game two, but there’s hardly going to be changes in the Warriors’ plans.
“We just gotta come out the same things we did today, and make a couple of outside shots,” said the American mentor.
“If they’re not falling, we just have to attack the basket a bit more and not settle for as many threes.”