I hope we have not peaked yet, says SMB’s Ross

THE SAN MIGUEL Beermen have remained undefeated after five games in the elimination round of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup and one key cog, point guard Chris Ross, is hoping that they have not reached the peak yet.

“I hope that’s true. We really don’t want to peak yet. We want to peak later on in the eliminations and into the playoffs. [Import] Charles [Rhodes] is getting better. Coaches are finding ways to use everybody. These last two wins are good heading to the All-Star break with our rotations and just getting used to each other again and Charles getting used to us,” Mr. Ross told BusinessWorld in an interview.

With the good showing they are having in the mid-season PBA tournament, the Beermen have had the luxury of late of experimenting on different things, including giving ample playing time to relievers like Brian Heruela and seldom-used rookie Arnold Van Opstal, and even gambling on resting June Mar Fajardo in the second half of their game against the Mahindra Floodbuster recently, which had the three-time league most valuable player finishing with zero points, the first time it had happened in four seasons.

“We need to rest June Mar because we know that he’s been the most abused player the past few championship campaigns. He’s been practicing with us and Gilas so we want to preserve him for the bigger games, especially with Gilas in the SEABA (Southeast Asian Basketball Championship),” said San Miguel Beer coach Leo Austria of the decision to rest Mr. Fajardo.

San Miguel is the only undefeated team in the tournament with a 5-0 win-loss record heading to the All-Star Game.

Mr. Ross credits it to the team’s mind-set of working hard and having fun at the same time.

“Just go out and have fun. You play your best ball and have fun. Just enjoy ourselves and try to play the best that we can. Just go out there and enjoy the game. When you’re enjoying the game good things happen for you. We go out there and try to enjoy. Even in practice, we enjoy ourselves in practice. We had a zumba class to start the practice one day. It’s just about getting used to each other and having fun,” added Mr. Ross. —