Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
ANTIPOLO — It hasn’t been the smoothest of starts for Christian Standhardinger in the PBA.
Even the Fil-German forward admits that at times, he’s learning a different sport altogether.
“I’m literally making big adjustments. I literally have to lift heavier weights to be stronger, because this feels like a different sport,” he said.
“It’s a lot of grabbing, holding. Here, you can kind come from the side, and still run your defender out of his lane which is a new adjustment I have to make. I have to change how I play defense because if you don’t use your hands, you can use your body to bully him out of his lane.”
Accounting all of his learnings from the first game, Standhardinger did have a better offensive effort compared to his debut, posting 17 points, 15 rebounds, and four assists on Sunday.
“I already made adjustments in the post. I’m not posting up, I’m more facing up, that worked actually fine today,” he said.
However, even his much-improved numbers weren’t enough to stop San Miguel from falling to 0-2 this 2018 PBA Commissioner’s Cup after its 123-119 overtime loss to Rain or Shine.
Standhardinger rued the free throw disparity with the Elasto Painters shooting 44 free throws against the Beermen’s 16.
“It’s always hard to win a game like this,” he rued. “I had the impression that they were the physical team, and not us. But we just got to play through it.“
The 28-year-old, though, knows that he has to keep adjusting to the style of play in the pro league.
“Now I know why in Gilas, I’m wondering why we’re always in team fouls. Because here is a country that you call so much less, and you let play more things. While in Europe, as soon as you don’t have position anymore as a defender, that’s it. So I need to keep adjusting,” he said.