Pingris doing it all at defensive end for Mixers

Marc Pingris of San Mig Coffee (light) vs Mark Caguioa (behind) and Japeth Aguilar of Ginebra (dark). PBA IMAGE by Nuki Sabio

MANILA, Philippines — Marc Pingris had to guard all but one Barangay Ginebra San Miguel starter at the defensive end in different stretches in Game 3 Sunday night.

And San Mig Coffee head coach Tim Cone couldn’t help but get overwhelmed by what his dynamic forward can do.

Cone was telling reporters how good the Kings rookie Greg Slaughter was before abruptly changing the subject as he stumbled upon Pingris’ name as he recalled every man he put against the seven-foot center throughout the Mixers’ 97-89 win.

“Greg was awesome. He was unbelievable tonight. Rafi was playing him as tough as he can, Yancy was playing him as tough as he can and finally we went to Ping,” Cone said.

Slaughter, the top overall pick, powered his way to a career-high 29 points but had to work doubly hard in the final two quarters when Pingris was his designated defender.

Slaughter wasn’t the only one Pingris had to contain though.

“And let me digress for a moment and I mean, my god Ping started off on Tenorio and then he went over to Caguioa for a little bit then he played Japeth for a while and then we needed to play Slaughter so he over to play Slaughter,” marveled Cone.

“I mean he’s going through all the players and it’s such a luxury from a coaching standpoint to have a guy like that. We’re constantly switching him around and he’s really amazing, really amazing. He can guard anybody. I’ve never seen anybody who can do that as well as he does,” Cone added.

With his unquestioned will to win, the six-foot-five Pingris made it look easy trying to stop whoever assigned to him but he did admit how tough his job was.

“It was hard,” Pingris said in Filipino after notching 15 points and grabbing a team-high 12 rebounds. “But that’s my role on this team and I’d do whatever coach Tim asks me to do and I really prepare hard.”

And though, trying to keep in step with heady and fleet-footed guard in LA Tenorio and Mark Caguioa may appear to be his most challenging task, Pingris would say otherwise and admit that the sheer size of Slaughter had him on his heels.

“It was really hard guarding Slaughter. He was so big and heavy and also a skillful kid,” Pingris, who played a game-high 44 minutes, said. “He has the height advantage against me and I tried to make full use of my quickness but he’s heavy.”

Game 4 is on Wednesday with the Mixers looking to go up 3-1 over the Kings and Pingris knows it won’t be easy trying to win a second straight game against the top-seeded squad.

“We’re happy to get this win but we can’t afford to relax. We all saw how they ate us alive in Game 2. We just need to continue adjusting our defense,” he said.

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