Basketball
The PBAologist: Notes on game 7
InterAKTV/Markku Seguerra
Tonight’s battle between Petron Blaze and Talk ‘N Text in the 2011 PBA Governors’ Cup Finals will be the 26th game 7 in the PBA’s best-of-seven history, the 19th overall in a PBA finals.
This is the first time Talk ‘N Text and Petron Blaze are figuring in a game 7 of a PBA Finals.
The last time the PBA Finals went to a game 7 was in the two conferences of the 2008-09 season with Talk ‘N Text and San Miguel Beer emerging victorious – the Tropang Texters against Alaska in the 2008-09 Philippine Cup and the Beermen over Barangay Ginebra in the 2009 Fiesta Conference. In both series, the eventual champs battled back from a 2-3 series deficit.
13 of the 24 teams which survived game 6 and forced a game 7 went on to win the series — a 54% batting average for the team with the momentum going into the do-or-die game. The percentage is higher in the PBA Finals – 67% (12 of 18) including 4 of the last 5.
The franchises of both Talk ‘N Text and Petron Blaze have losing records in game 7s of the PBA Finals – 1-3 and 3-4, respectively. However, each team won the last time they were there.
Talk ‘N Text coach Chot Reyes has an unbeaten 2-0 record in a game 7 of a PBA finals, having steered Coca-Cola to the 2003 Reinforced Conference against San Miguel Beer and his current team’s win over Alaska in the 2008-09 Philippine Cup.
A victory by the Tropang Texters will hand Reyes his eighth championship, which will place him in a tie for fourth place with Barangay Ginebra’s Jong Uichico among coaches with most championships, behind Baby Dalupan’s 15, Tim Cone’s 13 and Norman Black’s 10.
Reyes is already the first head coach in PBA history to have won at least two championships with three different ballclubs, having previously won twice with Purefoods and Coca-Cola.
Petron Blaze coach Ato Agustin is looking to become only the second rookie coach to steer his team to a game 7 finals win after Ryan Gregorio with Purefoods (versus Alaska in the 2002 Governors’ Cup).
The 1992 league MVP, Agustin is eyeing to become only the second former league MVP to win a championship as head coach after Sonny Jaworski, the 1980 MVP who won four titles with Ginebra.
Talk ‘N Text is eyeing its fifth conference title and sixth championship overall — it also won the 1998 Centennial Cup side tournament of the 1998 Governors Cup — while Petron Blaze is looking to extend further its league-most record number of titles to 19.
Four of five previous teams which won the first two conferences of the season and advanced to the finals of the third conference went on to win the Grand Slam – Crispa in 1976 and 1983, San Miguel Beer in 1989 and Alaska in 1996. The only exception was Toyota during the league’s maiden season in 1975.
Only once has a game 7 of the PBA Finals gone into overtime – in the 1995 All-Filipino Cup when Sunkist defeated Alaska, 87-78.
Fidel Mangonon III is the head of statistics for the Philippine Basketball Association. For more discussion on the ins and outs of the league, follow Fidel on Twitter.
