Calvin Abueva emerging as the best player after 11 elimination round games in the 2021 PBA Philippine Cup was a development that hardly surprised Magnolia head coach Chito Victolero.
"We all know how Calvin played last year. He just continued it this season," remarked Victolero after the Hotshots took down Rain or Shine in Game 1 of their best-of-three quarterfinals matchup last Sunday.
But to understand how good Abueva has been early in the All-Filipino conference, it's important to first contextualize his contributions and the Hotshots' overall showing, and why the union between player and team has been as snug as projected.
Let's take a look at the Hotshots first.
As covered in our preseason piece, the 2020 version of Magnolia was an elite defensive team that struggled with rebounding and putting points on the board. Only one team had a better defensive rating than the Hotshots (98.2) inside last year's "bubble," according to Dribble Media's Stats by Ryan, but the offense (101.2 offensive rating, eighth) was only marginally better and often stalled.
Rebounding was also an issue, as the Hotshots lacked consistent bounce and energy on the glass and so grabbed the second-lowest number of boards (46.5) last year.
Enter Abueva.
In that same preseason piece, the 33-year-old forward was expected to fix some of these issues as an additional playmaking hub at 4 while injecting some much-needed activity on the boards.
He's done just that. Magnolia isn't being outrebounded anymore and has grabbed the fifth-most boards on a per-game basis (51.9) with "The Beast," fourth in rebounding (9.7) leading the fight.
Abueva's assists are down (3.1) compared to last season's top three mark (5.2), but playing with the Hotshots' bevy of guards has allowed him to cut down his turnovers (2.2 compared to 3.8 in 2020) and grease a usually dull Magnolia offense that has churned out an effective 100.5 points per 100 possessions - good for fifth in a conference where scoring struggles have been aplenty.
It helps that Abueva himself has been relatively pinpoint on offense, scoring 16.1 points (10th) on 45.9/34.9/70.2 shooting splits for a true shooting percentage - or the measure of total shooting efficiency accounting for the cumulative value of field goals, three-pointers, and free throws - of 56.0 percent, which is the best figure among top 10 scorers after the elimination round.
Defensively, Magnolia remains elite (94.1 defensive rating, third), and Abueva, only one of four players averaging over a steal and a block, is a huge part of that.
"He's very consistent on both ends of the floor. His energy and hustle are there, not only in rebounding and scoring, but also in other aspects, like 50-50 balls and everything," explained Victolero.
"Calvin, he just plays hard, and he just wants us to have a chance to fight at the end of the conference," continued head coach about his prized ward, who also leads the league's statistical race for Best Player of the Conference. "If he gets that blessing (the BPC award), Calvin deserves it."
However, Abueva will have to remain consistent in the playoffs if he is to continue leading the BPC race. His scoring was not quite there when Magnolia scored an 81-70 win in the series opener against Rain or Shine as he managed just eight points on 3-for-11 shooting, but he nonetheless still managed to collect 13 rebounds, two blocks, an assist and a steal in 30 minutes off the bench. He also posted a team-high +13.
Abueva having a similar game - or better - in Game 2 against the Elasto Painters on Thursday could push the Hotshots to the semifinals for the first time since they made the 2019 Philippine Cup finals. It's a job that last year's Magnolia could not complete after losing to an eventual game-winner from Matthew Wright in the team's no. 2 vs. no. 7 matchup against the Phoenix Fuel Masters.
"We're very motivated. We all know what happened there: we lost through a last shot," said Victolero. "It boiled down to the breaks of the game. That all added to our motivation heading into the season."
"The most important game is the one in front of us," added the coach when asked if Magnolia will try to close out the series against Rain or Shine in the second game of a double-header. "We'll take it possession-by-possession and we won't think of the result. That will come in the end. As long as we do what we have to do and execute our game plan, everything will fall into place."