Elite squad

Blackwater plays a third game in six days Wednesday night, and after having assured itself of its best-ever performance thus far in any elimination round of a PBA conference, one might think that the Elite can afford to look at the bigger picture as far as the Governors’ Cup playoffs go.

Not coach Bong Ramos, though.

“We’re at 6-1 (in second place at the moment), and this seldom happens in our franchise,” Ramos told the Inquirer, a few hours after preparing his Elite for another clash with a heavyweight, Magnolia, set at 7 p.m. at Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay. “All we want to do is grab the opportunity and enjoy the moment.”

Blackwater is just half-a-game out of the lead being held by defending champion Barangay Ginebra, and Ramos and his crew actually have the luxury of picking the games where they can play hard in order to bag a top four berth and a twice-to-beat advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

“I don’t want to look at it that way,” he said. “For me, for us, it’s taking it one game at a time—winning all the games that we can—before we look at the placings in the standings. If we end up in the top four, good, if not, it’s still good because we’re still in the playoffs.

“What we want is to just play as hard as we can in every game,” Ramos said.

Ramos presided over a light workout by the Elite on Tuesday as import Henry Walker celebrated his 31st birthday by treating the entire team to a sumptuous meal of Cebu “lechon.”

“Henry loves our lechon. This was the second time that he treated the team to such,” Ramos said. “But when the lechon arrives, he makes sure that he’s not there until the head is taken out and kept somewhere he can’t see it.”

That meal is part of the recharging process for the Elite, especially after Ramos extended his players a lot in the last six days and carved out wins over Meralco and Rain or Shine.

“We have an 11-day break (after the Magnolia game) and I promised them an extended break of 2-3 days if we win this one,” he went on. “That’s why I’m going to play them hard again and they are ready.”