ANTIPOLO City – Some ‘friendly’ reminder from coach Alex Compton in the third quarter was all it took to fire up Mike Harris.
After hearing it from Compton at halftime, the prolific import fired 22 of his game-high 36 points to steer Alaska to a runaway 100-71 win in Game Three of the PBA Governors Cup Finals on Sunday night at the Ynares Center.
Harris admitted he had a slow second half start which obviously didn’t sit well with Compton despite the team holding a 50-36 lead at the break.
“Coach got on me in the third quarter. I got off to a slow start and I’m not really precise with my movement defensively,” he said. “And I get motivated off thrash talking, so he said some stuff and it kind of got me going. I was able to make some shots.”
Harris fired 18 straight points in one stretch for the Aces, including a completed four-point play off Magnolia counterpart Romeo Travis. By the time he was done, the Aces were already way ahead, 83-50, entering the final quarter.
The NBA veteran capped his brilliant performance by going 14-of-22 from the field including 4-of-7 from three-point range. He also finished with 18 rebounds and just three turnovers, after averaging six in the first two games of the finals.
Harris also dished off some trash talk of his own during the game and said he’s hardly affected by anything said against him.
“That’s me. If you come into one of our practices, you will see it doesn’t matter who we’re going against. In practice, I’m also competitive,” he said.
“I talk trash to all my teammates. Fortunately, they’ve learned how to respond to it is a little bit better now, because in the beginning they’re kind of like, ‘What is this guy doing?’ But they know it’s all in fun. I’m a competitor and I like to win.”
Harris, however, said Alaska in not out of the woods yet.
“I think we got their attention a little bit more. But they have our attention as well, they’re leading, 2-1,” he said. “We got to be prepared. In the locker room, it’s not a big celebration moment because we haven’t done anything. We just stoped going down from 3-0.”
The best-of-seven finals resumes on Wednesday with Game 4 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
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