Smokin’ Aces

Kevin Racal (left), JVee Casio and the rest of the Alaska Aces have been enjoying quite a run the past few games. —Sherwin Vardeleon

Alaska has been simmering hot in the PBA Philippine Cup, and the Aces are exactly in the form they want to be in going into the meat of their elimination round schedule in the season-opening conference.

With three straight wins against formidable enemies, the Aces get another stern test in a TNT KaTropa side that is playing with newfound zest and fans could be in for a treat in the 4:15 p.m. contest at Philsports Arena in Pasig featuring two squads in the tournament that play with gung-ho abandon.

Alaska’s pressure defense—a full court press that shows no let-up—will be up against Nash Racela’s newly-instilled “college” philosophy and this could provide for an interesting sidelight more than what the final score would say.

“I want them to play with the college spirit again,” Racela told the Inquirer in an earlier interview after the Texters displayed more spunk and gifted him with his first win in two outings as a rookie PBA coach.

“I want them to go all out the whole game, unlike in the past when I noticed that they (Texters) would wait until the final five minutes before playing their hearts out.”

Together with his philosophy, Racela said Jason Castro, the TNT superstar guard, is being asked to play a lot differently from hereon out.

“We want him to play a lot more defense, more than he has ever done in the past,” Racela said. “We (coaching staff) know that we rely a lot on him offensively, but this time, we want him to play hard on both ends.”

“We are willing to cut down his minutes so he can give us a hard game both offensively and defensively,” Racela said.

The Aces have been undefeated ever since Calvin Abueva returned from sick bay and the good thing about Alaska’s last win, a virtual walkover against Barangay Ginebra, was that coach Alex Compton was able to keep his core fresh.

“It was just one of those games where we were able to hit a bunch of shots and play with a lot of energy,” Compton said. “But against TNT, we have to bite, scratch and claw. They’re such a strong team.”

Compton is aware that, with Racela’s new system, the Texters are practically the Aces’ mirror image.

“Except that they are so strong they can afford to have Jason Castro and Ranidel de Ocampo come off the bench,” Compton said. “Now if a team like TNT can play at such a high level while being so strong, we have our hands full.”

In the 7 p.m. game, Rain or Shine tries to deal its former coach a fifth straight defeat when the Elasto Painters slug it out with the NLEX Road Warriors.