Magnolia must deflect history’s curse

IT’S a must-win wonder Magnolia must produce on Friday (today). Wonder because it’s no joke getting stabbed two in a row. Wonder Magnolia needs quick to manufacture as another loss could lead to perdition. Wonder getting warped could prove fatal.

First off, history isn’t on Magnolia’s side. With its Game One defeat, TNT is now bathed with the luster of the past. Wednesday’s win has immediately put TNT on the ridge of pomposity.

In short, a 2-0 lead materializing for TNT after tonight’s tiff would be a quick peep at the trophy, a scenario that Magnolia should dread like the black plague that killed 50 million nearly a hundred years ago.

Does Magnolia know that 59 of 87 teams that won Game One of a Finals clash went on to win a Philippine Basketball Association title since the league’s birth in 1975?

The psychological edge of capturing a first game is so huge that a coach will always leave nothing to chance if only to ensure victory.

And with the way the Tropang Giga took away the opening game – via a chilling 88-70 rout – that somehow seemed to have served a stern warning on the Hotshots to shape up or they could get shipped out early in the four-to-win series of the PBA Philippine Cup at the DHVSU Gym in Bacolor, Pampanga.

Coach Chot Reyes was so determined to win Game One that, without hesitation, he fielded outright his first stringers — bannered by the two Williams: Mikey the sensational rookie and Kelly the MVP with ageless poise.

Both delivered killer blows right from the first jump ball, almost flawlessly blending with their teammates in heeding Reyes’ science-fed mentoring that is as perennial as sunlight in summer.

Magnolia coach Chito Victolero must recalibrate fast or his Hotshots face a perilous path strewn with thorns, such as not fielding again his mainstays as starters.

Why Victolero froze Ian Sangalang, Paul Lee and the league’s beastliest of all, Calvin Abueva, from the get-go was the biggest botch.

That might have done wonders in the past. But then, this is the Finals, where real warriors come into play. Different forks (folks?), different strokes.

As everybody knows, in every championship showdown, a team wins from the strength of 90 percent coaching.

Victory for Victolero could come if he embraces that as gospel truth.

Magnolia coach Chito Victolero must recalibrate fast or his Hotshots face a perilous path strewn with thorns, such as not fielding again his mainstays as starters. AL S. MENDOZA, Columnist