Running joke

Mo Tautuaa and the rest of San Miguel Beer were up in arms in a frustrating late review and controversial call that nullified a crucial basket and eventually cost them Game 1 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup finals against the TNT Tropang 5G.

An equalizer in the best-of-seven series later, the Beermen seemed to have laughed off the incident and just turned their frustration into humor.

Game 1 was marred by controversy when Tautuaa’s dunk, which gave San Miguel a one-point lead after erasing a 24-point deficit, was waved off after a review with just 6.2 seconds remaining — a 50-second delayed call after he made the basket.

The technical committee, headed by deputy commissioner Eric Castro, decided to scratch Tautuaa’s field goal. Tautuaa was called for an offensive interference and the Tropang 5G suddenly went up ahead by one.

In Game 2, the 6-foot-8 Filipino-Tongan had a chance to score a follow-up jam off a missed jumper by Don Trollano with 2:13 left and San Miguel up by eight. It was a missed opportunity, though, as the ball hit the rim before bouncing away.

Tautuaa didn’t miss his dunk attempt in Game 1, in a manner of speaking, but it was taken away after it went in following a high bounce when he held onto the ring, which “caused the basket to vibrate,” thus the offensive interference.

“Yeah, you see I tried to do it again, I tried to do it again, I missed another dunk,” he quipped.

“I think I’m done trying to dunk now. I feel like I got over that point where I’ll just lay it in from now on,” Tautuaa added, laughing.

He, however, made up for his bricked slam when he carefully laid the ball in for the Beermen’s final basket in their 98-92 win last Wednesday that leveled the series at one game apiece.

“I was happy he didn’t dunk it,” veteran guard Chris Ross joked after his dish to Tautuaa for the breakaway layup.

The 10-time PBA champion admired the professionalism of Tautuaa in putting the past behind him and bouncing back big time.

“Mo’s a gamer. He didn’t show any frustration either. The next day, we didn’t really talk about the play,” Ross added.

Tautuaa finished with 16 points and four rebounds in Game 2.

“He responded like how I need Mo to respond. He’s a big-time player. He’s been a big-time player his whole career. He’s shown what he can do with the minutes,” Ross said.

Even head coach Leo Austria joined in, taking a fun jab at Tautuaa.

“We didn’t talk much about what happened to his dunk. And you can see that he dunked again tonight. He missed again,” the mentor said as hearty laughter cracked inside the press room during the postgame interview.

“That’s how we handle that kind of situation for a player. He doesn’t need to be pressured. Because, as we all know, when you hear a lot of things. When you say a lot of things, it’s like a lot of analysis leads to paralysis. And we just let him play.”

Tautuaa and the Beermen are trying to snatch a series advantage as of press time at the same Cubao venue.