By REYNALD MAGALLON
Rebounding has been key so far in the 2024 PBA Philippine Cup Finals.
The Meralco bigs came out to do the dirty work particularly in cleaning up the glass as the Bolts outrebounded San Miguel Beer in three games so far in the best-of-seven Finals affair.
Meralco has defeated SMB on the board in all of the three games but none more evident in Game 3 where the Bolts outworked the Beermen 57-53 while also collecting 22 huge offensive rebounds, four more than the latter’s 18.
In Game 1, Meralco outrebounded SMB, 51-50, before repeating it Game 2, 46-43.
The activities of the bigs like Raymond Almazan, Brandon Bates, Norbert Torres and Cliff Hodge have played a crucial role for Meralco’s 2-1 series lead so far.
“We know that if we come out and dominate the rebounding, we have a great shot at winning the game,” said Hodge who had 13 rebounds in Game 3 including six on the offensive end.
He is averaging 12.3 rebounds per contest in the Finals and 6.3 offensive boards highlighted by his nine such rebounds in Game 1.
In the extra possessions, Meralco converted 22 points against SMB’s only 11 in Game 3 – a key difference especially in a series where the games were decided by seven or less points so far.
In retrospect, the Beermen had 24 second chance points against the Bolts 22 in its Game 2 win which was decided by a solitary point, 95-94.
“That’s one of the focal points,” said Hodge who mostly got the rebounds as the rest of the Meralco bigs were boxing out SMB rebounders.
“All the bigs having to guard June Mar and try slow him down, I mean he’s the best, he’s the ‘GOAT’ in the PBA and it’s a hard job for them to slow him down they got to box him out so I’m just trying to get as many rebounds as I can,” said Hodge.
In Game 3, Almazan also had six offensive rebounds of his 13 to cap an efficient night where he also had 17 points while limiting Fajardo to just five attempts from the field. He is also averaging 8.3 rebounds per game in the Finals.
Fajardo, the league-leading rebounder, is still norming 12.6 rebounds in the series but there’s basically no one after him with CJ Perez being the next best rebounder with 5.6 per game.
