THIS is probably one of the times when Louie Alas wishes he was still with Alaska.
After all, the new Phoenix coach saw his former squad continue to display its old, fiery defensive form – unfortunately at the expense of his new team, 93-75, in their PBA Philippine Cup matchup on Wednesday night.
“We were raped by my former team,” Alas began bluntly. “Yung post-game ko, you allowed them to rape us. Before the game, I tell the interviews nga na ano eh, this kind of officiating goes for everybody but it fitted Alaska primarily.”
“Because if you will remember, yung mga championship game namin noon (with Alaska), kaya kami nakarating sa championship because of the physicality of the game,” he added. “Eh kami (sa Phoenix), nag-start pa lang kaming matutunan yun.”
The Fuel Masters definitely learned a thing or two about how to employ a pressing defense from the Aces, whose defense held Phoenix to just 24 first-half points and a paltry 33-percent (30-of-90) field-goal shooting overall, leading to transition offense.
“Ang ganda talaga ng laro nila defensively and offensively,” Alas said of his former team. “Yung offense nila ano talaga, resulting from good defense. Ganun din yung gusto kong maging kultura nitong team na 'to, na talagang barometer is depensa.
“And so far, on a scale of one to 10, nasa four pa lang ata kami, baka wala pa,” he admitted. “We need to improve it a lot better than what we did today.”
The Fuel Masters also have to work on their offense after relying heavily again on gunner Matthew Wright and Jeff Chan, who showed the way with 16 and 14 points, respectively, but combined for a dismal 12-of-37 shooting from the field.
“Sabi ko sa players ko na hindi tayo pwedeng aasa lang sa starters natin, dapat ang magiging strength natin is yung second group,” Alas said. “It happened din two times and we’ll check it and arrest it as soon as possible. Kung gusto namin mapunta sa second level, we have to arrest that weakness.”