CHICAGO - When I saw Phoenix ditch its starters in Game One of their semifinals series against Magnolia, I thought it was dumb and stupid.
It felt like a stunt that should have been done during the elimination round and not when a finals berth is at stake for a team that had never been there since joining the PBA in 2016.
I asked coach Jamike Jarin what the deal was.
After a phone chat I found out that the switcheroo wasn't just a burst of mid-life crisis or an idea born out of a drunken stupor. There was genius behind the madness.
"We planned it and walked it through with the entire team," Jarin said of the oddity that lasted for 1 minute and 26 seconds in the first quarter before the starters were fielded.
Putting his reserves in there to taste what it's like on the big stage was a way of rewarding them for their hard work and keeping them "involved and engaged," he explained.
The ploy was also meant to spring the element of surprise to make Magnolia "off-balanced and confused," Jarin hoped.
DEFENSIVE BATTLE
Phoenix eventually lost Game One, but not after giving the Hotshots hell in an 82-79 thriller where the Fuel Masters nearly pulled off the upset despite hitting just 37 percent of the shots (26-of-70) including a 9-of-34 fare from 3-point distance (26 percent).
Magnolia was equally abysmal in shooting the rock - 31 of 79 from the field and 4 of 25 from 3 - but the Hotshots eked out the win by employing its patented grind-out, punch-in-the-nose tough defense.
"We had our chances and we let it slip away," Jarin, who's not the type to linger and mope about what's already done, said.
The path to the finals just got steeper for the Fuel Masters. They must now win three of the next four games, or a 75 percent success rate the rest of the way.
Whatever happens from hereon, this Commissioner's Cup is already a big win for a Phenix team that has, thanks to an astute team manager in Paul Bugia, somehow managed to be competitive despite the inherent challenges that plague an independent team.
Look, the MVP Group - with its unlimited resources, big-named, big-salaried personnel plus an arsenal of foreign consultants - had all of its three teams eliminated from the Final Four.
PHOENIX CULTURE.
The Fuel Masters, meanwhile, have risen from the ashes of constant personnel changes. And from that shattered debris, Bugia and Jarin built workplace stability and competitive bite.
Phoenix's brand of happy, communal basketball has brought an alluring charm to a usually humdrum PBA semifinals where only the rich teams populated with max players used to compete.
Asked if he has another surprise in store for Game Two, Jarin replied with a playful laugh.
"Secret."
Jarin is reminding us that basketball is just a game, after all, and that victory is not the only oxygen for joy.
Creativity and imagination matter, too.
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