MANILA — Alab Pilipinas braces for arguably its toughest assignment as it will face a former National Basketball Association star in OJ Mayo and the rest of the Fubon Braves in one of two ASEAN Basketball League games on Tuesday night.
Alab will try to bounce back from their tough loss to the Macau Wolf Warriors, but the short period of rest could pose as a concern as they will quickly play host to the Braves at the FilOil Flying V Centre in San Juan City.
Alab coach Jimmy Alapag is wary at what Fubon can do especially that it has a high-quality core led by Mayo, the third pick of the 2008 NBA Draft.
“They have a quality team coming in with OJ Mayo and Maxie Esho coming in on Tuesday,” Alapag said.
Fubon also has former NBA Draft prospect Sim Bhullar and Joseph Lin, the younger brother of former NBA champion and current Chinese Basketball Association star Jeremy Lin.
However, Alapag is bullish about Alab’s chances.
“This team has shown this early in the season that we can bounce back, similar to what happened the first game of the season against Mono [Vampire],” he said of their second meeting that saw Alab avenging its bad beat against Mono at home.
Mono will be involved in the other game of the scheduled twinbill as it will host the Macau Black Bears at Stadium 29 in Nonthaburi, Thailand. (PNA)
