Blog Posts by Sid Ventura

Tim Cone is eying more titles for B-Meg. (Photo by Sid Ventura)

Tim Cone was more than willing to field questions all night from reporters shortly after his B-Meg Llamados pulled off a classic 90-84 overtime win over Talk 'N Text to bag the PBA Commissioner's Cup crown Sunday night.

"I can stay here all night. I don't want to go back in there (the B-Meg locker room), because I might get wet," he said with a laugh, referring to the celebration that had just broken out among the Llamados and their supporters.

Celebrating a PBA title is a scene that the 53-year-old Cone has experienced more times than any other coach in PBA history, save for the legendary Baby Dalupan. By winning the Commissioner's Cup, Cone annexed his 14^th league title, just one behind Dalupan's all-time record of 15.

'There's nothing like winning a championship. It's really, really something.'

It's his first title after leaving the Alaska Aces, the team he coached for 22 years and led to 13 championships, but the feeling never gets old. He has grander plans for his new team, and

Ryan Reyes and TNT face another must-win tonight. (PBA Images)

The Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters face a must-win situation tonight in Game 6 of the PBA Commissioner's Cup Finals, but it's familiar territory for the defending champions.

Dating back to the semifinals of the Philippine Cup, TNT has won five straight elimination games, rallying from a 1-3 semis deficit against Petron Blaze and overhauling Barako Bull's 2-1 semis lead just last month. So tonight marks the sixth straight must-win game for the Tropa, and they will need to extend that streak to seven if they want to retain their title and keep their hopes for a rare grand slam, which they narrowly missed last season, alive.

But if you ask Chot Reyes, he feels his team might have finally run out of miracles.

"I'm sensing we have nothing left in our gas tanks," the colorful mentor said moments after B-Meg took Game 5, 82-66, in the process holding the Texters to their lowest point total of the conference. "In life you gotta sense if there's something left. Motivation is overrated. At this

B-Meg's James Yap tests the defense of TNT's Larry Fonacier in Game 1 action. (Photo courtesy of the PBA)

The B-Meg Llamados came out smoking in the first period, allowed Talk 'N Text to come back in the third, and unleashed a big run at the start of the fourth to turn back the Tropang Texters, 88-82, to grab a 1-0 lead in the PBA Commissioner's Cup finals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Denzel Bowles, the favorite to win the Best Import plum, scored 25 points while PJ Simon shot 81% from the field and finished with 18 to help the Llamados overcome a lousy third period that saw them squander their double-digit advantage and allow TNT to take a five-point lead heading into the fourth.

"We played good on the first quarter and the fourth quarter, and we battled through that bad time in the third quarter," B-Meg coach Time Cone said. "That's not a good recipe to beat talk n text. We gotta play four quarters of basketball. We can't play only three and expect to win."

A James Yap basket at the start of the second half gave B-Meg a 50-40 lead, but TNT slowly made its run, and eventually grabbing

TNT's Chot Reyes and B-Meg's Tim Cone shake hands before going to war. (Photo courtesy of the PBA)

Tim Cone and Chot Reyes, two of the winningest coaches in Philippine Basketball Association history, go head to head once again in a PBA finals series, and while the teams and players they coach have changed over the 18 years that they have battled, one thing remains constant: they still want to beat each other badly.

Cone's B-Meg Llamados and Reyes's Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters dispute the Commissioner's Cup title starting Monday, the sixth time the two will face each other on local pro basketball's biggest stage.

"Tim and I go a long way," said Reyes, who started his PBA career as Cone's assistant on the Alaska bench in 1990. "He has a different set of pieces now."

"I always want to go up against Chot," Cone said of his former apprentice whose Texters are the defending champions of this conference and have their sights set on a rare grand slam, something Cone achieved in 1996 with Alaska. In fact, that was the last team to have grand slammed, and if Reyes pulls off the trick this

Powerade's Big Three are no more as Marcio Lassiter is shipped to Petron.

Despite Bo Perasol's public appeal to keep his team intact, the Powerade Tigers pushed through with their trade with Petron, sending Marcio Lassiter and Celino Cruz to the Blaze Boosters in exchange for center Rabeh Al-Hussaini, guard Rey Guevarra and veteran shooter Lordy Tugade.

It was a revision of a previous trade proposal that was ultimately rejected by PBA Commissioner Chito Salud which would have exchanged Lassiter for Nonoy Baclao and Guevarra. This time, Petron threw in Tugade and replaced Baclao, the 2010 no. 1 who has warmed the bench for most of the season, with the six-foot-seven Al-Hussaini, the no. 2 pick in the same draft who has been injured and seen limited action.

The PBA approved this revised Powerade-Petron deal yesterday, paving the way for Lassiter to join his former Smart Gilas teammate Chris Lutz in an intriguing small forward rotation. Perasol had publicly opposed any attempt to break up his nucleus of Lassiter, Gary David and JV Casio, the trio that carried

Jarde Dillinger slices through the Barako Bull defense. (Photo courtesy of the PBA)

Defending champion Talk 'N Text, going all-Filipino in the last few minutes, finally put away the pesky  Barako Bull Energy, 101-90, in their winner-take-all Game 5 showdown to arrange a mouth-watering best-of-seven Commissioner's Cup finals showdown with the B-Meg Llamados.

Donnell Harvey scored 29 points to lead the Texters, but had to sit down with 4:47 left and TNT up by just four, 88-84, after picking up his fifth foul. Chot Reyes found no need to put Harvey back into the game, though, as his locals led by Jimmy Alapag and Ranidel De Ocampo kept the Energy at bay with big plays down the stretch.

De Ocampo split his free throws and then Alapag hit a long triple to give the Texters a 92-84 lead, but back-to-back baskets by Ronald Tubid kept the Energy within striking distance with barely three minutes left. On the next play, Alapag beat his man off the dribble, forcing Danny Seigle to help out and leave his man De Ocampo open in the corner. Alapag dished it to De Ocampo, who hit a

Denzel Bowles and the Llamados are in the Commissioner's Cup finals. (Photo courtesy of the PBA)

The B-Meg Llamados are in the finals of the PBA Commissioner's Cup as Denzel Bowles once again dished out a sterling playoff performance, pouring in 34 points and grabbing 14 rebounds to power his team to a convincing 108-84 Game 4 victory over the Barangay Ginebra Kings.

B-Meg clinched the best-of-five semifinal series, three games to one, and now awaits the winner of the Talk 'N Text-Barako Bull rubber match later tonight.

"It's good to be back," said B-Meg coach Tim Cone, who will be coaching in his 24^th PBA finals, and first with the Llamados. "I am just real tickled pink for the players, for Denzel for the management. I feel real good for them."

The Kings, who were hoping to duplicate their 2009 Philippine Cup feat of overcoming a 0-2 best-of-five deficit, got off to a hot start and posted a 25-11 lead behind Jackson Vroman and Dylan Ababou. B-Meg came right back and tied it up at 35 on Joe Devance triple, before Ginebra inched ahead again at 44-38 midway through the second

Kelly Williams and TNT totally outplayed Barako Bull in Game 4. (Photo courtesy of the PBA)

Defending champion Talk 'N Text won't go quietly into the night.

Facing elimination and the specter of blowing their grand slam bid, the Tropang Texters clobbered a listless Barako Bull, 108-90, to force a deciding fifth game in their PBA Commissioner's Cup semifinal series at the Big Dome.

It was the second time in the series that TNT bounced back with a resounding rout after a loss to the Energy. The emphatic win also sent a message of sorts that the Texters were not about to be intimidated by Barako Bull's physicality, something that Chot Reyes publicly called out following their Game 3 loss.

But for Reyes, their margin of victory in Games 2 and 4 is of little consequence, since at the end of the day the series is still knotted up at 2-2.

"All we did was tie the series. We can't celebrate, we can't be satisfied. We're just halfway there and we need to get one more game. One win is one win, doesn't matter the margin."

Still, the manner by which TNT stepped up to win its fourth