ABL Finals - No quarters sought, none given!

KUALA LUMPUR (Mageshwaran’s AsiaScope) - One is a debutant in the league while the other is playing its first season with a new name and looking for redemption with a re-hauled line-up.

Therefore when San Miguel Beermen host Indonesia Warriors to tip off the Finals of the ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) Season 3 this weekend, saying that the stakes will be high is a gross understatement of the situation.

The Warriors – in their earlier nomenclature known as Satria Muda (which in fact is Warriors in Indonesian) – lost to Philippine Patriots in the Finals of the inaugural season and are aware of the Filipino jinx in the titular contest.

The Beermen, on the other hand, are conscious of the fact that their rivals are a different team – literally – than the one they beat thrice during the Regular Season.

Thus, in a manner of speaking, Saturday’s clash between the two at the Ynares Sports Arena will be the “first” of its kind.

“They’re not the same team we played before,” said San Miguel coach Bobby Parks.

“They made changes in their team, sort of overhauling it. So we haven’t met this team. But they also haven’t met us since we added key players to our team. So it’s like starting from scratch.”

The Warriors made history of sorts when they beat Philippine Patriots in Game 1 of the semifinals – the first time ever an Indonesian outfit had beaten the Philippines on their home turf – and will hope that their record continues.

“Although by record we’re the underdog, we have a degree of confidence moving forward. We’re going to compete at a pretty high level in the Philippines,” says Warriors coach Todd Purves.

“This is my first year overseas and I was learning as we were going, in a hard way to some degree.

“So I understood that we needed to make personnel changes and we did that and we were able to get a lot better,” added the American.

The scales at this point in time look slightly tilted in favour of the Filipinos considering the home advantage they carry.

“The one advantage that we have is that we have the home edge,” said Parks, who hastened to add: “Indonesia can hurt you in so many ways.

“They’ve got good inside presence, they’ve got shooters. But I have confidence in my team.”

“Our advantage is we have a deeper bench,” said former Philippines coach Rajko Toroman, now a consultant for the Beermen.

“We have 12 players who can make a good job for us. I don’t think Indonesia is that deep a team.”

A deeper bench or otherwise, the Warriors are riding a seven-game winning streak, four of those wins coming in away games.

The ABL has raised the bar in terms of quantity of games played and the quality with which they are played in the SEABA region. There’s no doubting that. It’s time now to look at the honors.

So long…

S Mageshwaran

FIBA Asia

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