Of all the times that Meralco has squared off with Barangay Ginebra, there are two games that Norman Black remembers clearly.
In both, the Bolts had a healthy Raymond Almazan to plant as some sort of guardrail in front of the basket.
“Remember, we were 1-1 when we got hurt in that championship series [in last year’s Governors’ Cup],” Black said. “So we’re really competitive with Ginebra until he went down.” And Almazan as a crash barrier is doubly important for the one player that Black didn’t have a matchup for before.
“Raymond gives us the best possible matchup we can possibly have against Japeth [Aguilar], because he is a real problem for all teams. He’s so big, so long, …
Keep on reading: Focus on ‘D’