Baser Amer is not giving Jimmy Alapag a chance to entertain thoughts of “unretiring” for a second time with the way he’s providing the thunderbolt from the backcourt for Meralco, which raised its unbeaten start to four games in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup last week.
The 25-year-old former San Beda guard, picked seventh in the 2015 rookie draft, has proven to be a good—and exciting—replacement for Alapag, the former Gilas crack guard known for his long bombs, who came out of retirement last year to boost the Bolts to a runner-up finish in the Governors’ Cup.
The 6-foot Amer, who comes from a Muslim family in Davao, is the league’s top local shooter in a tournament featuring high-scoring imports, averaging 16 points a game while firing a team high 19 in Meralco’s 94-86 debut against Mahindra.
A slasher when the opportunity beckons and a perimeter deadshot as well, Amer contributed 12 as Meralco downed NLEX, scattered 17 in a 94-89 decision of the TNT KaTropa and matched the same output when the Bolts shocked the defending champion and erstwhile unbeaten Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, 89-83, last Wednesday.
Amer was at his best against the Painters where he impressed Alapag, who retired in 2015, into doing a series of high-fives on the bench with fellow Meralco assistant coach Ronnie Magsanoc following gems of a play. One highlight move saw Amer driving on the right baseline then shifting the ball to his left for a layup. On another, he defied the hulking RoS import Shawn Taggart on a fastbreak with a back-to-the basket stab.
But the killer act came when he pulled off a tight pass to import Alex Stephson, who laid up then completed a three-point play to give the Bolts the lead for good at 83-72 with barely three minutes left. It was the sixth assist for Amer, who also contributed 11 rebounds.
Alaska and Star remained close behind Meralco at 3-0 with the Aces relying on an all-Filipino squad led by Sonny Thoss in pulling away in the last quarter for a 98-92 win over the Mahindra Floodbuster (1-3) and the Hotshots nipping the hard-luck NLEX Road Warriors, 105-103, on a buzzer-beating jumper by Jio Jalalon.
The KaTropa (2-1) also escaped with a 92-89 decision over the Blackwater Elite even as Phoenix (2-2) exploited all the bad breaks that fell on debuting Barangay Ginebra and rolled back the Gin Kings in a road game in Davao last Saturday, 94-91.
The Elite and the Road Warriors remained winless after absorbing the most frustrating of their four losses so far.
While Jayson Castro was credited with the TNT win, bucking five fouls to preside over a 9-0 closing finish from 83-87, Elite import Greg Smith was to blame for the narrow defeat as he missed five of six free throws in the last quarter. Thrown to waste was the 22-point, 31-rebound effort by Smith.
It was just as hurting for NLEX, which had possession with 30 seconds left and the score tied at 103. Coach Yeng Guiao gave explicit instruction for Rabeh Al-Hussaini, who was playing his first game for NLEX after leaving Meralco, to serve as decoy and going for the final shot with 10 seconds left in the game clock. But Al-Hussaini tried to play hero and blew a jump hook that paved the way for the Jalalon winning basket from an assist by import Tony Mitchell.
Ginebra rested Governors’ Cup hero Justin Brownlee for an apparent injury in the last quarter and Mathew Wright delivered the winning free throws with 11 seconds left following an enemy error to finish with a game-high 27 points.
Commissioner’s Cup champion San Miguel Beer was playing its first game against Meralco at presstime.