Chito Victolero: Hotshots’ timing, conditioning still off

Chito Victolero. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Magnolia experienced one rough welcome in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup afterlosing to Alaska, 103-80, Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Hotshots had a later start in the conference compared to the other teams in the league since they were still playing in the Philippine Cup finals against San Miguel until May 15.

Despite that, Magnolia head coach Chito Victolero said his still had a shorter preparation time than the rest of the other teams.

“We only had less than two weeks of preparation for this conference but it’s not an excuse,” said Victolero in Filipino. “It’s not an excuse but we really didn’t have any rhythm, we don’t have the timing and we’re still not in game shape.”

That’s Victolero opted to keep his main players on the floor in hopes of helping them get a better feel of each other even though the game had already gone beyond reach early.

Import John Fields logged more than 30 minutes of play while Justin Melton, Paul Lee, Ian Sangalang, Jio Jalalon, Mark Barroca, and Rome dela Rosa all played more than 20 minutes.

“I didn’t want to take my key players out because I wanted them to get their rhythm, and if you noticed that even though we were down by 20 points they were still out there playing,” said Victolero.

What made matters worse for Victolero was Fields had to play through a sprained ankle.

Fields’ injury limited him to 12 points and six rebounds while going 4-of-11 on his field goal attempts.

“John had a problem in his ankle, two days before our game he sprained it,” said Victolero. “I’ll talk to John on Friday to look at the situation of his ankle, I don’t know what he’ll feel about it but I have to talk to him.”