Magnolia Hotshots are through to the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup semifinals after a tough, grind-it-out 112-106 overtime win over NLEX Road Warriors on Sunday -- a result that had Jio Jalalon and coach Chito Victolero sighing in relief afterwards.
"Wow! Ang hirap nu'n!" was what Jalalon immediately exclaimed at the post-game press conference. "Ang hirap, brod. Sobra", was the reply of Victolero.
The Road Warriors looked headed for a big win after taking a 97-94 lead late in regulation and holding possession with 45 seconds left. The Hotshots had to dig deep to force overtime, where Jalalon left his mark and carried the team to the semifinals.
With Magnolia marching on to a last-four meeting with TNT Tropang Giga and NLEX left to rue a missed opportunity, here are three takeaways from Sunday's game.
Jio is waving at coach Chito
Jalalon was on the bench late in the game, possibly wondering why Victolero had forgotten about him.
The Road Warriors had taken that 97-94 lead with a minute left, and he badly wanted to be on the floor. So he walked up to Hotshots assistant Tony Boy Espinosa and told him just that.
Espinosa relayed the message to Victolero, who sent Jalalon in for Rome Dela Rosa. It was a decision he wouldn't regret.
"Fourth quarter I told the coaches I wanted to play," Jalalon said. "Good thing they put me in."
"I would like to say sorry to Jio," Victolero said. "I kind of forgot about him in the fourth quarter. I told Jio to stay positive, and I will go to him on every possession. Just from his eyes you could see, 'coach, you'll regret it if you don't use me.'
Jalalon, one of the league's best defensive guards, came up with two huge plays that rescued the Hotshots' campaign.
After Ian Sangalang missed a shot, the Road Warriors had a chance to ice the game on the next possession. But Jalalon picked off a wayward pass by Kevin Alas which led to a Paul Lee triple that tied the game with 11 seconds left. NLEX went to Calvin Oftana to try and win it, but Jalalon poked the ball away to send it to overtime.
Then in overtime, Jalalon hit a rushed triple to beat the shot clock, the ball bouncing off the backboard and in to give Magnolia a 106-100 lead with 1:49 left.
"Tsamba lang talaga 'yun," Jalalon said with a chuckle. "I saw the shot clock approaching zero. I just threw it up. Nothing to lose."
Asked why he didn't go to Jalalon earlier, Victolero explained: "It was the flow of the game. I couldn't figure out how to use him in match-ups.
"NLEX is really my dilemma. I have a bad match-up against NLEX. All of their wing guys and guards are tall, so we have a hard time matching up on Oftana, on (Don) Trollano.
"That's why we cannot do the three-guard combination with Paul, Mark and Jio because we have a bad match-up against NLEX. And that's why during the flow of the game, we can't have that combination. Sometimes it's Jio and Mark or Jio and Paul or Mark and Paul."
After the Hotshots finally put the game away, Victolero revealed: "He (Jalalon) looked into my eyes and said, 'I told you, Coach. I told you.'"
Hotshots' defense, again
Jalalon may have been credited with those two steals late in regulation, but it was Magnolia's defensive identity and execution that made them happen.
On the first steal, a stifling double team on Alas forced him to pass under pressure. On the second, Mark Barroca stayed in front of Oftana, who had to go to his left where Jalalon was waiting.
"During the timeout, I told my players: 'We will have that chance if we make stops. We need to go back to our identity'," revealed Victolero. "Because the scores were too high."
Magnolia's league-leading defense limits opponents to only around 82 points a game, so NLEX having 97 with three minutes still left in the game was worrisome. When overtime rolled around, the defense was back as the Hotshots held the Road Warriors to 3-of-12 shooting in the extra period.
"I'm very proud because we didn't give up," the Magnolia coach added. "We were down but we didn't give up. That's mental toughness and the grit and determination of the players. It boils down to one possession, boils down to one rebound, one miss."
Finals rematch is next
In the 2021 Philippine Cup -- held in a bubble in Pampanga -- the Hotshots fell to the TNT Tropang Giga in five games.
This is their chance for revenge and another appearance in the finals.
TNT has been resting since Wednesday, while Magnolia will have little time to recover from this grueling overtime win.
"We just have a night to rest and tomorrow we'll prepare for that battle," Victolero said. "It's a different battle. They are the defending champions. They beat us in the last bubble."
The two sides last met on opening day on June 5, where the Tropang Giga fashioned out a low-scoring 78-72 win. It's noteworthy to mention that TNT's Mikey Williams, the tournament's leading scorer with 22.3 points per game, was still in the United States then and missed the game.
Victolero, though, believes he has the antidote to Williams, declaring: "Jio will guard Mikey."