JAY Washington believes GlobalPort’s role players should provide more support to Terrence Romeo and Stanley Pringle if the Batang Pier want to stay alive in their PBA Philippine Cup semifinal series against Alaska.
While acknowledging it’s their dynamic duo’s efforts that brought them to their first Final Four appearance, the Batang Pier forward is urging his team to play as a unit starting in Game Four on Sunday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
Washington said GlobalPort's offense can't afford to be stagnant whenever Romeo or Pringle dominate the ball.
“Against a good defensive team like Alaska, you really have to make them move defensively and we’re not doing a good job on that, coming down, with one person having the ball the whole possession and taking a shot,” the Filipino-American forward admitted. “It’s hard to win that way.”
“It’s a conscious effort on our part, either we want to do it, we want to play as a team or we don’t,” he added.
Asked if they’ve been relying too much on the duo, Washington didn’t answer directly, but said he is hoping his teammates step up.
“It’s hard to say that (we’re relying too much on the two) because, honestly, they’ve carried us to this point. We’ve all had support roles.”
“But in a series like this where you play every other day, it’s hard for them to be efficient like that,” he added. “You’re going to have off nights and you’re not going to want to shoot every time playing back-to-back–to-back-to-back-to-back.”
Washington is GlobalPort’s best scorer outside the dynamic duo, but has normed just 7.7 points in 22.7 minutes in the first three games of the series.
“At this point, I think we need to be smarter as a team and really rely on each other, because we have a lot of guys that can get it done if given the chance,” the 6-foot-7 forward said.
“But it’s (also) hard to make those adjustments at this point,” he was quick to add. “Sometimes it’s hard to fill that role when you’re not used to doing it.”