Aces try to overcome lead one possession at a time

Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

If there’s one team which knows that a 3-0 lead in the finals doesn’t guarantee a championship, it’s the Alaska Aces, who lost the Philippine Cup title to the San Miguel Beermen after losing four straight games three months ago.

No team in basketball has ever come back from a 0-3 deficit in a best-of-seven series until the Aces’ major collapse led to the title for the Beermen.

If it has been done before, it could happen again and Alaska certainly hopes to have a reversal of roles after being down three games to none against Rain or Shine in their championship series following a 112-108 loss on Wednesday night.

“We better have some San Miguel so we could make a “beer-acle” happen, I guess,” said Alaska head coach Alex Compton.

Compton, though, isn’t thinking too far ahead as he wants his team to just focus first on what’s next.

“But honestly, at this point, for me, it’s absolutely about pride. You don’t win, three games or four games on Friday,” he said. “And I tell you, maybe I’m old fashioned, maybe I’m wrong but I’m all about every possession, about every aspect of every possession.”

“Of course, you’re not gonna, but unless we are competing, trying to win every aspect, every possession, we’re not really going to have a chance and I think it’s where it’s at,” Compton added. “I’m looking at the first possession. Are we ready to defend? Do we know what we’re doing? We had time, we’re prepared, we went through all the stuff. We weren’t ready. Shocking. Just really shocking.”

Winning four in a row is doable as shown by San Miguel and the Aces are going for it as well.

But before anything else, they have to survive Game 4 first.

“Again, I don’t look at that. You talk about, If you wanna get there, you gotta win the possession that’s in front of you. There’s no four-game win.”