Is there a worst part about this injury situation?
Losing Kean Baclaan for the season and Mason Amos for most of the eliminations to a common reason, opposing players making a dangerous dive into vulnerable knees.
Or it could also be that we are trapped in a heated controversy against a………. 0-6 UE Warriors. A team with the sole aspiration of winning a game in Season 88 so they can all troop back to Recto and burn some wood to celebrate life and hope. Hoping that there would be some rich sponsor to bankroll a massive drive to poach talents from everywhere.
But there might be some bright light at the dimming line of sight.
With more than 7 minutes left in the final quarter and after Wello Lingolingo made a WWE back slam on Baclaan’s vulnerable knee, the Archers were still behind by 8. Sure, there was momentum, but still long winding road ahead, considering how good Precious Momowei was ravaging the DLSU interior.
So what clicked? Did the greens got mad and made Recto Warriors realize that they won’t like these Archers when they were angry?
With the supporting cast of Motor Mike Phillips and his bunch of struggling Archers with no Baclaan or Amos in sight, there was an odd calm on the floor. It was like someone dimmed the lights, and everyone suddenly started hearing each other breathe.
A strange feel of new chemistry concocted by anger and desperation.
Jacob Cortez then went nuclear on the UE defense. Razing the perimeter D with his quick flips and ripping into UE’s interior like they don’t exist. The Cool Cub, who only got 6 points pre-Lingolingo body slam, went on a personal blazing streak, exploding with 12 points, 5 of 8 shooting, and pushed La Salle into a four point lead going into the final minute until the refs …. did something to send the game into OT with outlandish calls.
During this stretch, the possessions looked… cleaner. The passes, quicker. The ball, freer.
And it’s forcing the question we never thought we’d ask in this Green Archers roster that is this loaded:
Could the Green Archers offense actually breathe better with fewer stars?
Before anyone panics, this isn’t a referendum on Baclaan’s flair or Amos’ gravity and value. Those guys are certified problem-solvers.
But what’s happening without them is that DLSU’s offense looks a little bit less like a playlist of solo acts and a little more like a band playing in rhythm.
The ball was swinging side to side. Drives were collapsing defenses, not teammates. Earl Abadam getting touches in rhythm, EJ Gollena rediscovering his zip, Motor Mike finally burning rubber five feet from the basket, and this is the soul Topex Robinson’s system that preaches pace, space, reads, and chaos with a purpose. The flow finally feels like it has oxygen.
If you squint, this version of La Salle starts to look a bit like the basketball equivalent of those loaded NBA teams: the ones that somehow play better when their star isn’t around to soak up possessions.
It’s not magic, it’s fluid redistribution. When you take away a couple of ball-dominant players, everyone else suddenly has to move, think, and shoot like the offense depends on them.
Spoiler: it does.
We’ve seen this movie before. The 2018-2019 Boston Celtics with then dominant star Gordon Hayward and hardcourt magician Kyrie Irving. plus a bunch of loaded superstars that only had Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum as emerging stars. The Celtics lost Hayward on opening day and eventually Irving going deep into the regular season.
But these then-young Beantown Celtics thrived in adversity, found their rhythm through ball movement and cohesive offensive flow that led these young C’s to the Eastern Conference finals and almost took down Lebron and his Cavaliers in a thrilling Game Seven
The 2014 Spurs turned passing into art when their stars took a step back. The Warriors looked more like jazz than basketball before KD arrived. Even Ateneo’s 2019 machine won games by making sure no one ever held the ball long enough to be the star.
So maybe, just maybe, the Green Archers’ best version isn’t about who’s missing, but about what’s moving.
The worst part about all this may not be as bad. Finding enlightenment that this “simplified La Salle basketball” might hold up once the real wars resume, maybe the injuries were less of a curse and more of a forced reboot.
And in that reboot, you might find something scarier than star power — cohesion.
ANIMO LA SALLE!
BEAT UP!
