A title duel to remember
Maybe it needs a sort of force majeure to give fans a little breather. Maybe it really needs a force of nature like tropical storm Karen to heal the passions liberally spent and shared in the PBA Governors Cup title series.
Nobody has budged an inch after Game Four. The Meralco Bolts and the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings are all square at two games apiece. And nobody has gained the psychological edge as the duel rises and falls with the shift in fortunes between the two teams.
Four Games after it took off, the series has kept all seat belts fastened as it brought the fans literally into the eye of the storm, into the core of a turbulence.
“That was a storybook of a game,” said Ginebra coach Tim Cone after the Kings won Game Four where the initiatives juggled between the two sides at every turn.
It’s more than a storybook of a game. It has become a storybook of a series.
In four games, no team has won by more than five points with the opener going into extra period – Game One 114- 109 ( Meralco), Game Two 82- 79 ( Ginebra), Game Three 107- 103 ( Meralco) and Game Four 88- 86 ( Ginebra).
Of the two games Meralco won, the Bolts scored more than 105 points but were limited to less than 90 points on the two outings they lost.
“It’s a mind game, a chess game” said Meralco coach Norman Black.
Or a war game. Once the enemy seizes the city, the other side moves out to control the countryside. Once the other guy builds a formidable defense in the middle of the chessboard, the other methodically chips away at the seams.
When the Gin Kings threw an unforgiving defense, the Bolts fired away treys behind Reynel Hugnatan and Jimmy Alapag.
The series churned out heroes after heroes. But no heroics were better appreciated by Ginebra’s raucous fans than the exploits of Ginebra’s senior duo of Jayjay Helterbrand and Mark Caguioa who relived their Fast and Furious glory days to turn the tide for the Kings in Game Four.
They somehow brought back the great Ginebra in the days of yore.
Maybe the fans need a little break, maybe the disruption from the coming storm would serve like a virtual balm for tired bodies, ebbing energy, and low batt of spirit.
Until the Gin Kings and the Bolts meet again to resume the title duel with all the trimmings, chills and thrills.
For this is one series for ages.