The Magnolia Hotshots may be 5-2 in this PBA Season 50 Philippine Cup, but there’s a concerning trend LA Tenorio hopes to address in the coming weeks: flat starts.
Once more, Magnolia started off slow in its outing against the Blackwater Bossing on Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, falling behind by as much as 12 points in the first half. The Hotshots rallied with a fiery third quarter to notch their fifth win in seven games, but Tenorio isn’t quite happy with yet another rough start.
Magnolia’s Poor Starts Are a Problem
Counting the Blackwater game, the Hotshots have started flat in five of their seven games. They’ve mostly gotten away with it, rallying to beat Blackwater, the Terrafirma Dyip, and the Titan Ultra Giant Risers despite falling behind in the first half. But Magnolia couldn’t quite overcome its poor starts against the San Miguel Beermen and Meralco Bolts, both of whom erected big leads in the first 24 minutes of play and hung on as the Hotshots rallied late.
Tenorio isn’t a fan of such slow starts, and he wants it rectified ASAP.
“Most of our games we started really flat. I don’t know…,” Tenorio told reporters after Magnolia rallied to beat Blackwater. “I always tell my players when we start the game, we should not expect anything, especially offensively. The only thing that we’re gonna expect is for us to get the stops from start to finish. We have to win every quarter. For us to win the quarter, we really have to start better than kung papano kami mag-start. Hindi kami pwedeng ganito, slow start na kami with our offense, slow start pa with our defense. We cannot be like that.”
Tough Stretch Looms for Magnolia
Tenorio is hoping the Hotshots figure things out sooner than later because they’re in for a tough stretch as they will next be facing four teams tied with them at 5-2: Converge FiberXers, NLEX Road Warriors, Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, and TNT Tropang 5G.
“We cannot start like this all the time. Hindi pwede na parati kami naghahabol. I’d rather na kami ’yung hinahabol kesa kami ’yung naghahabol,” he said. “I really challenged my starting five…. The important thing is for them to play together from the start and set the tone for us. ’Yun ang nagiging problem namin. We’re gonna use this break to clean that up. When get back, we don’t have a choice because we’re playing back-to-back games against teams na nasa ibabaw namin (Converge and NLEX).”
Converge and NLEX and then Rain or Shine and TNT later on figure to be acid tests for the Hotshots, and they’re the type of teams that could take full advantage of opponents starting off slow.
So, yes, Magnolia needs to figure things out. The good thing is there’s a long break coming.
