Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
Back in 2014, the San Mig Coffee Mixers were winners of four straight titles and were all alone atop PBA’s Olympus.
Fast forward to 2015, the San Mig Coffee Mixers were now the Star Hotshots and they were plummeted back to earth as mere mortals.
READ: Alaska sweeps Star, returns to PBA Finals
Alaska had them crashing back to reality with a three-game sweep capped by a 82-77 defeat Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Star’s workhorse Marc Pingris said the strain of the Grand Slam and the difficulty of the 2014-2015 season took its toll on them as they never got momentum coming into the season.
“Maybe it was the fatigue that got to us,” Pingris said. “We were always trailing we always tried to make for lost ground.”
READ: Pingris decries Star’s ‘lack of effort’ after Alaska thrashing
Star never carried the momentum from their Grand Slam season into the 2014-2015 with early playoff exits and see-saw elimination stages.
“When you came off a Grand Slam, the road to another one is not that easy,” Pingris said. “We’re back to zero, back to square one. We have to work hard for it.”
With their exit from the Governors’ Cup Playoffs, Pingris said they have to work on the little things they never got right, the little things that brought them the PBA’s fifth Grand Slam. CFC