Five Fresh Things This Conference

(c) PBA Media Bureau

I am really enjoying this conference so far. The competition is at the highest level and a lot of controversial things happened. As we dwindle to the last few weeks of this conference, let me give you the five new things that fascinated me!

#5 Cabagnot and Ross are playing longer minutes together
Thanks to their historic triumph in the Philippine Cup, Coach Leo has found a very deadly combo in Cabagnot and Ross. Even though they are both point guards, the chemistry between the two is terrific. Chris is the primary ball handler while Alex will turn himself to a sniper. The awesome thing about it was, Ross assisted a lot of Alex long bombs! Ross is assisting 6.2 shots per game as Cabagnot shoots 45.2% from beyond the arc!

#4 Mahindra and Blackwater are winning games
Last season, the two expansion teams came out with 14 combined victories only. Kudos to the franchises for quickly building credible teams who now have 7 victories in total with few weeks to go. I think, one of the primary reason was the retention of their coaches who continued to build a system that fits the personnel that they have. The victims of Mahindra were Globalport, San Miguel, NLEX and Alaska while Blackwater axed Mahindra, Alaska and Globalport.

#3 Calvin getting more than 30 minutes playing time
Isn't it shocking that Calvin is getting more minutes now with an import on their side? No matter what the reason is, I am just happy that The Beast has more time to show his ware. In their last four games, he played an averaged of 31 minutes and produced 18.3 points, 9 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.5 steals. 

#2 Allein Maliksi's Torrid Shooting
Even the numbers of Stephen Curry cannot be compared to the current three-point shooting marks of Allein. Out of his 35 long bomb attempts, he connected in 22 of it, giving him an efficiency mark of 62.9%. If you convert that to per game basis, he is hitting 2.75 out of 4.4 attempts. With only three games to go, I am confident he could keep his efficiency above 50% and be part of the record books.

#1 Meralco winning a lot of games
Like it or not but Meralco has been the best team, record-wise, from the beginning of this conference up to this point. Their number 1 weapon this conference has been their #1 defense, they limit their opponent to 40.7% FG and 90.4 points. They support their defense with their elite rebounding, 50.8 per game (#2 in the league). Their last three games will be against Mahindra, Alaska and Ginebra. It will be interesting to see if Coach Norman continue to his remaining games to prepare for the playoffs.