A milestone was achieved and streaks were extended on the first game of the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals after Magnolia Hotshots took a 1-0 lead over NLEX Road Warriors with a 98-89 win on Sunday.
The Hotshots can wrap it up and advance to the semifinals if they take Game 2 on Friday. Here are three quick thoughts on Magnolia's dominant performance.
Mark Barroca reaches another milestone
Three weeks ago, Mark Barroca played his 500th straight game -- all of them with the Magnolia/Purefoods/San Mig/B-Meg franchise -- the second-longest active streak in the league, behind only LA Tenorio's 711.
On Sunday against the Road Warriors, the 36-year-old guard became the 95th player in PBA history -- 89 locals and five imports -- to score at least 5,000 points. He achieved the milestone at the 7:34 mark of the third quarter with a basket that gave Magnolia a 68-55 lead.
Barroca, one of the most soft-spoken players in the league, brushed aside the achievement, preferring to keep his eyes on the big prize.
"Thanks to my coach and teammates," he said. "Without them I wouldn't have achieved this. In my career, I've only wanted to be a champion. Awards are bonuses. Our real goal is to win another championship."
Barroca had it going early on, his 18 first-half points a career-high for him in a first half. He eventually finished with 24 for the game, which was just three off his career-high.
Magnolia keep on rolling
The Hotshots have not tasted a loss since June 17. They have now won eight straight after a shaky 1-3 start and are showing no signs of slowing down.
"We're peaking at the right time," coach Chito Victolero said. "We started (the conference) very slow.
"We didn't doubt ourselves. I know this team. We're veteran enough to overcome adversity. And now, we're all healthy. We don't think about the winning streak. We start the playoffs with a different mindset.
"This is a different game, and we've erased what happened in the eliminations. We're focused on the playoffs. What happened in the eliminations is just 25% of our goal. The other 75% is in the playoffs."
The win also kept alive another streak, one that dates back to 2019. NLEX has not beaten Magnolia in the last four conferences; the Hotshots are actually the only team they haven't beaten in that span.
Victolero, though, wasn't even aware of it, adding: "We don't think about that. We stay in the present. Whatever's thrown at us, that's what we work on."
The Hotshots haven't won it all since the 2018 Governors' Cup. They made the finals of this conference last season but lost to the TNT Tropang Giga.
Defense wins games, but offense is just as fun
By Magnolia's high defensive standards, NLEX actually had a good offensive outing. The Road Warriors scored 89 points and shot 43% from the field, marks well above the Hotshots' league-best defense that holds opponents to just 80.8 points and 37% field goal shooting.
The Road Warriors were missing star guard Kevin Alas, who was out for a third straight game with a hamstring injury, but it's doubtful if his presence could have changed the outcome given how well the Hotshots executed both their offense and defense.
They were particularly impressive in the second quarter, where they outscored the Road Warriors 40-21 to pull away for good. During that stretch, they missed just two shots and held NLEX to 6-of-18 shooting.
"Ball movement was good," Victolero said when asked about their hot shooting in the second. "They were sharing the ball. We just try to find a better and maybe that's what led to the high shooting percentage."
While the Hotshots allowed the Road Warriors to surpass their defensive marks, they made up for it on offense. Aside from Barroca, five other Magnolia players scored in double digits. Their 98 points were nearly 10 points higher than their conference average of 89.1, and their 45% field goal shooting was also better than their .418 mark.
NLEX hung around, but each time they would make a run Magnolia had an answer.
"It was very hard," Victolero admitted. "It was a grinding game, very emotional. They're a physical team. We tried to focus for 48 minutes. Our execution on both ends was very good. The discipline, the effort, the aggressiveness, everything."