The Halftime Report Blog

[gotemcoach]

MUST WATCH:  The moment Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan found out Chris Paul was a Clipper

“Lob City.”

I’m sure it’s hard to retain your excitement when you happen to be two of the best young dunkers in the NBA and you find out Chris Paul is your brand new point guard, but I couldn’t help feeling for Eric Gordon when I watched this.

Whenever the Hornets play the Clippers, I’m tuning in.  You’re going to learn a lot about Eric Gordon that night.  If he is what I think he is, Gordon will bust their asses.  I expect 40.

Another interesting note:  Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan are kids.  They’re so young.  They’re gigantic human beings, who’ve attained an incredible amount of success, but really, they’re just kids that got excited about playing basketball the way any of us would. 

You could replace Blake Griffin with me, replace DeAndre Jordan with my best friend Jay, and replace the news of a Chris Paul trade with the announcement of Star Wars: Episode One back in ‘97, and you wouldn’t miss a beat.  It’d be the exact same thing.

@gotem_coach

(video from FOX Sports and ballislife.com)

[plopculture]

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plopculture:

DPWH goes places. 

Someone just had to do it.

[ Context. Thanks @misteravid!]

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Heads Up Gallant Gilas.

Smart Gilas Pilipinas Lost to Jordan National Team minutes ago to grab the 1st finals berth in the 2011 Fiba Asia Championship in Wuhan, China 75-61.

Even though the Philippine team bid goodbye to the outright Olympic spot, our Olympic dreams are still at hand because if we will manage to win tomorrows game versus the loser of the China - Korea game, we will qualify for the Olympic wild card qualifiers, which will be the tougher tournament.

But even though we lost, they made us proud, they proved all the haters that they can live up to their potentials, this might not be the best team we sent to an international competition individually wise, but this team has been prepared since the moment of its inception, Rajko Toroman is a great coach and most of the sports personalities commend him and wishes that he will be retained as his contract is nearing expiration, Marcus Douthit plays like a natural born Filipino citizen even though he is just a naturalized one, one cannot imagine the team in the semis without him, and the locals, especially the young ones proved that they can and they will fight for the three stars and a sun, these guys will be the future of the Philippine basketball, and yes, that future is bright as we are redeeming our position as one of the top basketball nation in the worlds largest continent (Asia).

You also gotta give credit to the forerunners of this program, Noli Eala, Chot Reyes et. al, who dreamed that one day our nation will be as competitive as we are in the past, and to Manny Pangilinan who believed in the promise of our athletes not just in basketball but in other sports, truly he is the MVP.

Even if they lost, they still fought a gallant battle, and they brought the Philippine Basketball back to the top at least in Asia after 24 long years. - JC

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Thoughts on the 2011 PBA Rookie Draft.

Thoughts on the 2011 PBA Rookie Draft.

This rookie draft has the least number of applicants in the history but this draft might be also one for the history books of PBA. Imagine, you can still have a marquee player deep down into the 2nd round. That rarely happens (remember the Samigue Emman batch?).

Here are my  thoughts on the teams picks in the Draft:

1st Round

1st Pick

Jayvee Casio – Powerade Tigers

This is a smart choice, Casio has been entitled as one of the best point guards in Asia, and the Tigers really needed a point guard to complement the play of Gary David, this pick together with their 4th pick made Powerade a playoff contender add the fact that Kramer is added in the line – up.

2nd Pick

Paul Lee – Rain or Shine Elastopainter

Paul Lee running Yeng Guiao’s offense? Work of art. Perfect pick for Rain or Shine, Gabe Norwood can move back to his comfortable position as ROS already have a legit Point Guard that can make his own shot, can pass the ball, and can dominate (in year’s time), is Lee the missing piece of puzzle for ROS to finally enter past the semi finals? Let us see.

3rd Pick

Chris Lutz – Petron Blaze Boosters

Petron got lucky in this pick, although not solely in this pick, because with this pick, not only they got a pesky defender, a good shooter and an energy guy, but they also reunited with one of the SMC franchise’s marquee player, Dondon Hontiveros. Imagine the future of this team lead by Al-Hussaini, Baclao, Guevarra and Lutz, legit contenders.

4th Pick

Marcio Lassiter – Powerade Tigers

Do I have to explain this pick? You already saw this guy play, that boy good.

Maybe this potential starting lineup of Tigers can do the explanation.

C-Rob Reyes

F-Doug Kramer

F-Marcio Lassiter

G-Gary David

G-JV Casio

Can their bench sustain the energy? Let us leave that to their coaching staff, at least they are improving significantly.

5th Pick

Mark Barroca – Shopinas.com Clickers

For those who don’t know yet (or for the band wagons) this team owned by the Lina’s bought the Photokina Franchise also known as the Barako Bull Energy Boosters, and this team is named Shopinas.com Clickers and will be coached by Franz Pumaren, oops sorry I have to state my insights on the 5th pick, I do think that Barroca will not end up donning the new teams jersey, I feel that before the season will begin, he will be shipped to B-Meg (as therumor says) and for B-Meg, this is an excellent acquisition given that they lack point guards (Jonas Villanueva is injured, Roger Yap is aging, and Josh Urbiztondo is not a legit PG) and if the Clickers will not trade him, it’s nice to have a young core to build the  team with.

6th Pick

Mac Baracael – Alaska Aces

I didn’t expect that Mac will go lower in this draft, we’ve seen him play, he’s tough, nice pick for Alaska, I don’t think that he will find any difficulties in dealing with the triangle because as we all know, Toroman also has a system.

7th Pick

Jason Ballesteros – Meralco Bolts

We may see him play during the garbage time of Gilas’ games, we may never see him on the floor during crunch time, but this guy is legit 6’8, this guy is banging and defending a 7’0 guy during practice (take note, not just 7 footer, but also an American and a former NBA player Marcus Douthit) Ryan Gregorio see’s him play that’s why he picked this guy, he can foresee a good potential.

8th Pick

Allein Maliksi – Barako Bull Energy

PBA D-League MVP, enough said, let’s see if he can play like an MVP in PBA.

 

9th Pick

Reil Cervantes – Barangay Ginebra Kings

Finally not a guard!! This pick is nice, Cervantes is a tough guy, and when I say tough, I really mean tough, I remember watching one of FEU – UE elimination round games, when Paul Lee drove hard to the basket and this guy clothes lined Paul Lee, talk about being tough, this guy also has the talent to back up his toughness.

10th Pick

Dylan Ababou – Barako Bull Energy

This is another guy we rarely see play when Gilas have a game, but this guy is a former UAAP MVP, he won the MVP award against Lee and Al – Hussaini, he can be a future superstar.  

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Arwind Santos Deserved to win

Arwind Santos has been robbed again for the 3rd time ( yes he’s placed second in the MVP race three times in his career)  I think that’s the second worst feeling aside from being cut in a line up, but for me, this season’s MVP plum really belonged to him, I’m not saying that Jimmy Alapag is not deserving to win the title, in fact he is too, but talk about putting up MVP numbers night in and night out, putting in double-double averages of 17.2 points and 13.9 rebounds and having 21 and 27 rebounds in a game.

He was number 2 in Statistical points, he played in the finals twice this season, he was in the all-defensive team ever since he joined the league, he garnered 408 statistical points compared to Alapag’s 335, he got 233 votes from players compared to Jimmy’s 173, he got 300 votes from the PBA compared to Jimmy’s 50, think it’s a landslide for him? Not when you include the two remaining criteria, he only got  100 votes compared to Jimmy’s 300 from the Solar team and the worst, he only got 646 votes from the media, and jimmy had 1030, if you do the math, the 201 points margin of Jimmy from Arwind all came from the votes of the media, and what is the role of the media again? Are they experts? I’ll leave that to you.

Even if he didn’t win it this year, at least he still have the opportunity to win a more important thing, his 1st PBA Championship and a potential Finals MVP, they are 1 win away from winning the title.

I would love to see a rare grand slam, but I would also love to see Arwind holding two trophies, the Championship and the Finals MVP trophy - JC

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UAAP 1st Round Results and Individual Awards

  1.        Ateneo Blue Eagles

2.       Adamson Falcons

3.       De La Salle Green Archers

4.       FEU Tamaraws

5.       UST Growling Tigers

6.       NU Bulldogs

7.       UP Maroons

8.       UE Red Warriors

These are the ranks after the 1st round of the men’s basketball tournament of UAAP season 74, and as we can see, this has been a round of upsets, I predicted the final four teams in the 1st round correctly, but I never thought of that in this current rank, I never expected FEU to lose 3 games in the 1st round. I never predicted that Ateneo would sweep the 1st round, nevertheless here are my 1st round awardees in my opinion.

Rookie of the Year – Kiefer Ravena

Most Improved Player – Jeric Fortuna ( this has to be him, from an average point guard last season to a number 2 scorer in the end of a first round and being a perennial MVP candidate (if they enter the final four) is big)

6th Man of the Year – Jet Manuel (this kid does miracles for UP coming off the bench)

DPOY – Austin Manyara (3.1 Blocks per game is enough said )

Mythical Team

C Greg Slaughter

F Aldrech Ramos

F Alex Nuyles

G Kiefer Ravena

G RR Garcia (because Fortuna’s team is not in the top 4 )

MVP – Greg Slaughter (everything is easy if you are tall and lanky) OR Kiefer Ravena ( it would be great if we will see another ROY MVP, and he is actually number 2 in the race)

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Boundary Quota!

The UE Red Warriors finally notched a mark on the win slate of their standing in the UAAP after 65 years as they have beaten the final four favorite NU Bulldogs yesterday 72-71, ok seriously, not really 65 years but I really cant remember when was the last time they won in a UAAP game.

On my previous post, I said that the 2 remaining games of the Warriors in the 1st round are both winnable, well they lost to La Salle, but hey! they won in their last game, they now have a better record this year than last year where they swept the 1st round in a losing way.

The game is actually for NU to take, they are leading by 10 points with under 4 minutes left on the time. but thanks to the heroics of Noble who made an acrobatic bali-bali shot plus a foul, to Sumang who drived the lane and dropped the pass to an open Santos to  cut the lead down to 9, and another pass from Sumang to Santos, to put UE in the lead by 1 point, to Zamar and Enguio who led the Warriors in scoring consistently all game long, but if not for his heroics, UE couldve been 0-7 today, Bobby Ray Parks, who made a Lebronish act of not showing up in the final canto and scoring only 3 of his 23 points in the 4th quarter capped off by a potential game winning free throws which he missed both, followed by a missed putback of an offensive rebound. indeed, he is the unsung hero of UE

If the Warriors will continue to play this kind of basketball at the very least or improve it, they can at least win games in the expense of fellow cellar dwellers or maybe pull up an upset, maybe 3 more W's, that's not bad for a team that's fucked up, oops! rebuilding instead.

Shout out to the UE students and alumni who still watched and supported in spite of having a possible looming sweep. yesterdays game was actually worth your penny.

This team might have lack of talent, but they have a big heart, they might have no blue chips but they have outstanding support from the red tribe and as I have said previously, 

This team will go all out and fight, for the honor of red and white. - JC

P.S.

please continue that kind of game or improve it so that I will not occasionally bash my school on twitter. 

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The much coveted 2nd Berth.

Talk n' Text Tropang Texters already clinched the 1st finals berth in the 3rd conference of the 36th season of Philippine Basketball Association and there is one more berth up for grabs, and currently there are four teams that are battling each other for that place.

The situations are so much complicated between the remaining teams, and The PBAoligist broke down the situations into pieces and discussed it thoroughly on the interAKTV website, you can read it here:

The PBAologist: Which team will try to stop the Talk N' Text grandslam

and in this post we will weigh teams on why they are deserving to get that finals berth

Rain or Shine Elastopainters

This team is due for a Finals appearance, they always fell short in the previous seasons, but now they are only 2 games away from entering the finals and possibly stopping the rare peat that Talk n Text is aiming, this team is a young team with a lot of promise together with a good coach in Yeng Guiao and coaching staff in Caloy Garcia and Andy Jao, their fate is in their hands, will they make it? or another heart breaking conference.

Petron Blaze Boosters

This team certainly made a comeback, they are one of the finalists in the 1st conference of this season, but they were eliminated in the second season due to trading their marquee players, but now they are few steps away from going back to the promise land, but unlike ROS, their fate is not really in their hands, they must sweep their 2 remaining games, and the 1st one is today versus B Meg which is certainly winnable given the fact that.... never mind. 

BUT, they must also pray the Guiao's team will lose on one of its remaining games. so that they'll be back in the stage where they want to be, and so that Arwind Santos' best conference so far will not be put into waste.

Barangay Ginebra Kings

By losing to TNT a few days bake, Ginebra made their situation complicated by themselves, they must sweep their last 2 games in order to enter the finals and pray that Petron will lose on one if their games, but for me, this team is actually overachieving at this situation, they have no legitimate center, they are hobbled by injuries, they have new players, but this team has heart, this team has D SLOAN and MARK CAGUIOA who are lifting the team in their own hands, Caguioa is one of the frontrunners in the MVP race and securing a place in the finals will be one of his edges in order to win the highest individual award in the PBA.

Alaska Aces

Another team that doesn't have it's fate in their hands is the Aces, they need to win their last game but they also need to pray the Ginebra will lose, so that their will be no complicated tie breakers, because they have equal quotients and their last resort is a coin toss tie breaker, yep, coin toss, but this team is surprisingly still on the contention despite of the injuries of some important players, 1st is Baguio who is not 100 percent because of previous injury, and Wesley Gonzales who recently had an injury and is out for the season. but the hero of this team is their Forte. Jason Forte, who is flashing Best Import numbers, from a 20 - 20 game to a 40 point game.

so who is deserving? they all are, but only one proceeds, and the war for that 2nd berth starts today - JC

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Difference between Pinoy Streetball and American Streetball

Here is the very first entry in this blog! well I'm not a pro so sorry for some of my noobness, We Filipinos love basketball, it's funny how we like to play basketball more than playing sipa, arnis and sepak takraw, which are considered the national game of our country.

Filipinos and Americans have so much in common, one them is the love of the game, the game called Basketball, but they have so many differences in the way of playing it, Filipinos play the game in their flip flops while the Americans play in their rubber shoes, maybe we can consider the economic problems of our country that's why many Pinoys can't afford to buy basketball shoes that will cost you 4000 to 8000 bucks, that's the budget for food in one month for the filipinos, Americans have different set of rules as well as the Filipinos, first is the scoring in America, the first team to score 21 points is the winner, here in the Philippines, every barangay has different rules, may dyis dyis (10-10) ang skoran, if a team scored 10 points, there will be a change of courts first to reach 20 is the winner, there are some other rules indicated below.

According to Wikipedia, here are the Streetball rules in america:

-one player "breaks" to begin the game by shooting from 3 point range. Sometimes players agree that the "break" must not be a successful shot, in order to give every player an equal chance at rebounding to gain the 1st possession of the game

-the normal foul rule is in effect

-baskets are scored as 2's and 3's-after a successful shot, the shooter can take up to three 1-point free-throws, but as soon as he misses, the ball may be rebounded by anyone; conversely, if he makes all three free throw shots, he then gets to keep the ball and "check up" or start play again at the top of the arc-after any change of possession, the ball should be cleared past the 3 point line (or at times just out of the key)

-in order to win, a player must make exactly 21 points; if he goes over then he restarts back at either 11, 13 or 15 points, depending on the rules in use-whoever wins the game starts with the ball at the beginning of the next game-only serious fouls are called (commonly referred to as "No blood, No foul")-other typical basketball rules, such as out-of-bounds are also frequently ignored in the game "21"; this is to avoid confusion on possession of the ball  and here are the rules of Pinoy Streetball (well according to my experience in playing)

-one player will shoot at the free throw line, it is commonly called "MIS" if the ball goes in, the shooters team will earn the possesion, otherwise the other team will posses the leather-the normal foul rule is also in effect, ang tawag dito dyan ay "honesty" -the baskets are score in 1's and 2's, 1 for a field goal, 2 for a three point field goal-after a succesful shot, the opposing team gets the possesion while in the American Streetball, the possesion goes back to the team who scored

-after any change of possession, dapat ilalabas mo ung bola outside the shaded lane or the 3 second area, pag hindi mo nilabas at nashoot mo may maririnig ka sa opposing team "labaaas"

-in order to win, the team must score the agreed final score, usually 15, 20 or 25, but if both teams scored 14-all or 24-all, there will be some sort of overtime, "wan to payb" kung tawagin-dito sa pinas, hindi no blood no foul, minsan maiinis ka kapag may player na "NANA" o tawag ng tawag ng foul kahit soft touch lang-other rules apply also, kayo kayo lang magtatawagan, pag nagtalo, edi i"MIS"

but after all those differences in culture or the way we and the Americans play basketball, one thing is certain, we love basketball, they love basketball and that will never change. - JC