Trash-talking Harris gets self, Alaska teammates going in Game 3 win

ANTIPOLO CITY, Philippines—Mike Harris is one of those players who will use every kind of tactic to motivate his teammates including trash talking.

And it worked as Alaska dismantled Magnolia, 100-71, in Game 3 of the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals Sunday at Ynares Center here.

This was the first win of the Aces in the series after falling 2-0.

Harris said his trash talking worked its way into his teammates’ motivational system and that allowed them to blend seamlessly on the floor.

“In practice, I’m ultra competitive and I’ll trash talk all my teammates and fortunately, they’ve learned how to respond a little bit better now because in the beginning it was like ‘what is this guy doing?’ but they know it’s all fun,” said Harris, who exploded for 36 points while grabbing 18 rebounds in just 30 minutes of play.

Harris had his best offensive moment of the game in the third quarter when he unleashed 22 points on Magnolia’s discombobulated defense and 11 of those points were assisted by his teammates.

And of the 11 points that Harris got assisted on, eight were direct passes from point guard Chris Banchero.

“My teammates know what I’m capable of and they just told me to keep shooting, today was just one of those days,” said Harris.

“I saw some openings from the film and I was able to take advantage of that, get some layups in the first quarter to get going.”