Fearless Forecast Round 3

Famous coach of Miami Heat NBA fame is in Manila for the second time. Eric Spoesltra is in the Philippines again to conduct some coaching clinics. To those of you who may not know his mom is a Filipina. He will be visiting several schools as part of his tour. Who knows pretty soon NBA might have a their first pinoy player. And it would not be surprising if that player comes from the ranks of a Filipiono community overseas. Who knows he might come from pinoys in NZ, you never know.
 
Last week saw CMR Manila Motors scoring their first win against the new "never say die" team of PBA LM Money Transfer. Half time score was 42 - 37 for a five point advantage for the West based team. Lead went up by 16 points in the 3rd quarter thanks to the Evangelistas. Father Jude and sons Alvic and Jed combined for 15 of the 22 points their scored for the quarter. The final score of 84 - 71 does not reflect how close the game was in the fourth quarter. With CMR leading by double digit figures for most parts of the game, LM continued to fight and threatened to even take the lead during the last quarter behind Hidalgo; Ganzon and Buaya's sniping. Ron Hidalgo actually had a season high 22 points. In the last 5 minutes the difference was only 3 points. But such is the strength of finals contender Manila Motors that within a few minutes the lead was back to 10 thanks to last season MVP Patriarca and fancy players Eldialde brothers.

In the other game, New World had a full roster 15 players turning up to face Dimond. Coach Nestor had his hands full rotating his team looking for the right combination but also trying to give everyone some playing minutes. Dimond took advantage of certain lapses at the start of the game to build up a comfortable buffer by the first half, up 17 with the score at 54-37. The offensive load for the Roofmakers was pretty balance. The Supermarketeers had their highest scoring quarter in the final quarter with 25 points, unfortunate for them so did the Dimond with 35. Final score 110 - 82. Mark Yao again top scored for the second game running with 19 points followed by offensive machine Hebron Canlas' 18;Mike Becker chipped in 14 markers. Denmark Dillague was the leading scorer for New World with 18 followed by Mark Santos' 14.

LM Money Transfer (0-2) vs JR Panel (1-0)
Talent laden team JR Panel will face the Money Transferers in the first game. The Panel Beaters flexed just enough muscles in their first game to win by 22 points against New World. This star powered team did not even have their full line up missing some players that could easily be first five starters for other teams. Against LM Money Transfer might be a repeat of that game as well unless the Transferers can avoid falling behind early in the game. Can LM score their first upset? They almost did it in their first game against defending champs Dimond. They had their chances last week against finals contender CMR. Well, JR Panel is another finals contender team. If LM can limit their turnovers they may have a chance.
The Panel Beaters might just be too strong. Led by Dennis Lorenzo; Ferdie Manuel; Del Rosario Brothers, up to the 10th player of this team can be a starter. But siyempre (of course) stranger things have happened). Fearless Forecast: JR Panel by 14 points.

Dimond/Ampelite (2-0) vs CMR/Manila Motors (1-0)
This game might be a preview of things to come. These 2 teams have faced each other so many times in the past at crucial stages of tournaments. Well this time around we have just started the tournament, and the West team are ready. With their acquisition of the Eldialde brothers and the return of Kris Patriarca (ironically from Dimond)  CMR are title contenders indeed. Defending champs Dimond on the other hand lost half of their crew to JR Panels. With only Perry Salas who has yet to play a single minute (due to injuries) power forward Carlo Bueno Bautista and Mike Becker back from their starting unit last year this game will be a good gauge of how these 2 teams will match against each other.

CMR/MM is expected to win this one with their younger, faster and offensive conscious line up. They would have adjusted better after their first game last week, oh did we mention that CMR is also participating in another tournament. So this team has had a lot of chance to play together and definitely better conditioned. Dimond of course has a chance if their offense clicks. They certainly have enough firepower thanks to wingmen Canlas and Zhornack plus of course Becker the big difference on the boards. Fearless Forecast: CMR/MM by 5 points.

Remember guys, see you at the games and bilog ang bola!!!