Bolts trip Elite

Meralco has stood out playing a very tight schedule, going 6-1 in the first month of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup and practically booking the first quarterfinal slot.

With that hot start, coach Norman Black is now trying to figure out what he and his Bolts would do with a 17-day break ahead of them.
Would it be good for his team at all?

“That’s the last thing you want, because you are playing so well,” Black said after the shorthanded Bolts scraped past Blackwater, 102-91, on Sunday night at Smart Araneta Coliseum. “I really don’t know what to do [with the team] in those 17 days.”

Black acknowledged though that the Bolts’ second straight win is just the right thing to take going into a long spell. Knowing they are practically assured of advancing to the next stage makes it even sweeter.

“In the past, six [wins] have gotten you in [the quarterfinals],” he said. “That was the magic number in the past, but we’ll let the other games play out.”

In the nightcap, San Miguel Beer held off Star, 103-97, to extend its unbeaten start to three games.

Import Charles Rhodes paced the Beermen with 29 points on 11-of-14 shooting and hauled down 10 rebounds.
The long break will also allow Meralco to let injuries to some players heal, though Black said that he plans to have the Bolts work out in 12 of those days at the most.

The Bolts played without utility guy Cliff Hodge and rookie Jonathan Grey, both out because of different illnesses.

Kelly Nabong didn’t make the Bolts feel the absence of Hodge as he tossed in 11 of his 13 points in the fourth period while plucking down nine rebounds in his most impressive game in a long while.

Blackwater, which missed Art dela Cruz, JP Erram and super rookie Mac Belo anew, dropped to 1-5.