Gallent credits team effort for impressive games

Source: The Manila times
Author: Richard Dy

MANILA, Philippines: San Miguel Beer has been dominant in the ongoing PBA Season 48 Philippine Cup.

The Beermen rolled to their seven straight victory on Sunday after annihilating the listless NorthPort Batang Pier, 120-100.

And while SMB has yet to drop a single contest in. the all-Filipino conference, coach Jorge Gallent admitted that his biggest challenge at this point is how to keep the players engaged and play consistently for 48 minutes, especially when they have a big lead.

"We just have to talk to them (SMB players). They are just like kids, sometimes, the players play well and they stay a little bit longer, just how they play or how they perform inside the court," Gallent told media men following Sunday's easy win that saw them lead by as many as 39 points on the way to a 7-0 conference start.

The win allowed SMB to clinch the playoff spot, though the more important part now, is that the Beermen are inching closer to clinching a top 2 spot that dangles a twice-to-beat incentive.

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Gallent said as long as they move the ball well and play unselfish basketball, he expects them to dominate the league.

"That's what I was telling them, if San Miguel or my players share the ball, we're a great team, and if we don't, we're just a normal team," he added.

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San Miguel star wingman CJ Perez, who led the Beermen with 29 points, said the players have full trust on Gallent in regards to utilizing the immense talent the team has.

And yes, the 30-year-old Perez stressed that the players simply need to do their part by mirroring their hard work in practice to the actual games.

"In practice, honestly, there are times we get too physical with one another. That's true," stressed the Gilas mainstay. "Coach was also telling us that as long as we play and stay together, we will be hard to beat, but if we do it by ourselves, we will struggle."

San Miguel has a few days to prepare before meeting Magnolia, which the Beermen defeated in six games during the recent Commissioner's Cup Finals, en route to winning the crown in the import-spiced conference.