MANILA, Philippines — Amid the import concerns San Miguel Beer faced heading to the PBA Season 49 Governors' Cup playoffs, coach Jorge Gallent liked what he saw on new reinforcement EJ Anosike Thursday night.
The 6-foot-5 Anosike plays an entirely different style from the injured Jordan Adams, the guy the former replaced heading to Game 1 of their quarterfinal series against the Converge FiberXers.
"He's (Anosike) getting a lot of boards. His physicality inside and grabbing the boards. He likes to power inside, so that's a good thing for us," Gallent, said, shortly after San Miguel held off Converge's fourth-quarter rally to take Game 1, 102-95.
Anosike was indeed a bundle of energy, leading San Miguel with 28 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and issuing five assists, while playing beautiful music with eight-time league Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo.
Fajardo believes the American-Nigerian forward is a good complement to the Beermen, who are determined to win the Governors' Cup and add to their league-best 30 championships.
"EJ is very strong inside, and he rebounds well off the boards," the 6-foot-10 Fajardo said in Filipino. "He complements our team well. As for us, we just need to adjust with him."
Gallent explained that given the every other day games in the playoffs, playing Adams, who is nursing a hamstring injury he suffered late in the eliminations would put not only SMB's title aspirations at risk, but more so, the American import's career.
"We subbed out Jordan because of his hamstring injury. We all know that a hamstring injury is a traitor. And if it (injury) comes, there's gonna be a few games we won't play with an import," explained Gallent.
"Doctors said, in case he (Adams) plays hard, he might suffer a (hamstring) tear. We just didn't want to put that in consideration, and for his career also. We changed Jordan because of injury and not because of his performance," he added.
Adams, who won the Three-Point Shooting contest in the Indonesia Basketball League this past season, averaged 32.38 points, 8.13 rebounds and 3.5 assists, while shooting an astounding 62.5 percent clip from three-point territory during the eliminations.