Three to Four Games a Day: The Grueling Finish to a Compressed Season

When the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) suspended its games beginning last Friday, one question was running in the mind of every Filipino basketball fan: "Is the PBA bubble in Clark going to pop just two weeks into the restart?"

Fortunately for the basketball-crazy Filipino nation, the PBA bubble is going to remain a week after a referee and a player from the Blackwater Elite were reported to have tested positive for the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) but were later tested negative in the succeeding confirmatory tests. The league suspended the games last Friday as compliance with the recommendation of the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases until the PBA has laid out the new health and safety protocols.  

On Saturday, the league announced the resumption of games in Clark on November 3 along with the new protocols that are already in place. Along with this announcement, the PBA also released the amended schedule for the remainder of the elimination round that is set to be finished by November 11. For the first time in its existence, the league will hold four games starting November 3 with the Blackwater Elite going up against the San Miguel Beermen as the curtain riser for the day. There will be four games that will be played in three of the next four playdates with the Elite playing in three of those days including back-to-back games against San Miguel and the Meralco Bolts. 

Three to four games daily. If you're a fan, you'll love it because it means more basketball action. But if you're a player or a coach who is inside a bubble and is competing at a time when the entire world is battling a pandemic, it's different. It's tough. It's a grueling finish to a season that is already compressed.    

For starters, teams will have lesser preparation time for the games, and with the amended schedule that is coupled with the fact that you cannot practice as much as you want, it will boil down to which team is mentally prepared enough to finish such a tiring schedule because the physical preparation is already given. You train. You rest. The mental aspect is a different story. 

If there's one weapon that will give a team an advantage, it's the availability of young players with fresher legs and can produce good numbers. They will give the veterans the time to get themselves fresh for the home stretch and that will come in handy during the playoffs. 

While some expressed concerns regarding the grueling schedule to finish the elimination with Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok Head Coach Chito Victolero whose team is set to play a pair of back-to-back games, commenting  "The back-to-back games are already there. We really need to prepare. There's nothing we can do. We need to cooperate and try to follow", some like Scottie Thompson of the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings expressed, "We're already here. We prefer it this way rather than not having our job. This is our life. This will be a battle of adjustment"

Indeed, teams who will make the right adjustments will go the distance. 

Photo is from Manila Bulletin