ALASKA coach Alex Compton tried to pick the mind of the sports media last Friday, regarding which player the scribes think would take on TNT's Terrence Jones defensively.
"So what do you guys think? If we didn't have a good matchup for (Meralco import) Delroy James, do we have a good matchup for Terrence Jones?" Compton posed.
"Does anybody in the league have a good matchup for Terrence Jones?"
Of course, the media personnel present could not come up with any candidate, so it was Compton himself who supplied the answer, saying Jones could be defended by an NBA player. But not a PBA player.
"I don't think there's a good matchup for him here," stated Compton.
Sponsored content:
Compton and the rest of Alaska could have used some help, for Jones is expected to be the focal point of TNT's game when the KaTropa and Aces square off Sunday in their Commissioner's Cup quarterfinals duel at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
By virtue of topping the 11-game eliminations, TNT needs to only win once over eighth-ranked Alaska to advance to the best-of-five semifinals.
In order to go that short route, the KaTropa must control of the boards, take care of the basketball and play harder than ever before, according to coach Bong Ravena.
Alaska would sure be at a disadvantage and not only because of it needs to win twice in the duel.
The Aces needed to overcome James' 34 points to win over the Bolts 108-103 in overtime of their knockout game just last Friday to make it as the last quarterfinals qualifier.
Sponsored content:
And then face the big headache that is Jones.
"He's incredible," gushed Compton of Jones, who averaged almost 34 points on 48 percent field shooting, 16.09 rebounds, 7.73 assists, 3.09 blocks and 1.45 steals in the elims.
In their lone elims game last May 25, Jones got thrown out late in the game but not after 43 points, 22 rebounds and five assists that ensured a 99-85 win by TNT.
The Aces, however, still had original import Chris Daniels then. Now, it's Diamon Simpson.
But Compton can't match Simpson up at Jones, who usually starts from the outside before either pulling up for a 3 or penetrating and either finishing or dishing out.
Jones having to draw so much attention and leaving the likes of Jayson Castro, RR Pogoy, Don Trollano and Anthony Semerad open gnaw at Compton.
"He scores the ball at an incredible rate so what do you do?" asked Compton. "You have to help out on Jones, recover on Pogoy, help out on Jones, recover on Castro, help out on Jones, recover on Trollano, help on Jones recover on Semerad and it goes on.
"And they're defending fantastically, I think. I really appreciate the system they're playing."
"I think the best matchup against Jones is, like, stomach flu, or caught in traffic or something like that. From a basketball standpoint, it's a challenge. We'll try our best, try to throw some (defensive) schemes at him," he added.
"The thing is, for 11 games I think he'd seen pretty much every scheme there is. It's not like, 'O, bago lang ito.' I guess we can send all five guys at him. That would be very smart," he also said with a wry smile.
Meanwhile, after being unable to get any clue from those present at the media room last Friday, Compton himself could only offer one sure thing.
"I'm not going to sleep tonight, trying to figure out what we can do about that," said Compton. (NC)
