CHITO Victolero doesn’t see any issue about the diminished playing minutes of Calvin Abueva in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
The Magnolia coach stressed that the mid-season conference being an import-laden one, it’s only natural for Abueva – and the rest of the team’s big men for that matter - to see his minutes on the floor shrink a bit.
Victolero explained Abueva's exposure depends on the match-up the Hotshots have against the opposing teams, like the one they had against the NLEX Road Warriors in a 99-95 overtime win where 'The Beast' suited up for 22 minutes and finished with six points and 11 rebounds.
READ Abueva injured or simply out of Victolero's main rotation?
“I think there’s no issue about that because they know what to do and they know the situation,” said Victolero.
“It depends on the match-up. Ian (Sangalang) has a bad match-up because NLEX played small. That’s why we used more of Calvin and Zavier (Lucero) and Ian understood that.”
True enough, Sangalang played for only 11 minutes, while Lucero saw action for 31 minutes and sparked the Hotshots’ during the overtime period.
Import Ricardo Ratliffe, as expected, got the major minutes and produced the numbers needed from him – 38 points and 19 rebounds.
“I talked to the players that this is an import conference and Ricardo plays a bigger role, almost playing 46-47 minutes per game,” said Victolero, adding the coaching staff will have to distribute what's left of the minutes to the rest of the Magnolia big guys, including Abueva.
“But these guys are veteran enough and mature enough to understand everything.”
He cited Magnolia’s previous game against Rain or Shine, where the match-ups favored Sangalang, thus utilizing him more than Lucero, Abueva, and another big in James Laput.
“The last game Ian played better because he has a good match-up. So 'yun lang naman yun,” he said of the Hotshots’ close 102-100 loss to the Elasto Painters where the former NCAA MVP from San Sebastian finished with 21 points in 24 minutes of play.
Things will go back to normal come the Philippine Cup, Victolero assured.
“When we go to the All-Filipino, then they’ll get their regular minutes,” he said.
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