BJ Johnson shrugs off slow start, draws praise from coach in PBA debut

Phoenix import BJ Johnson during a game against Magnolia in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.–PBA IMAGES

MANILA, Philippines—Phoenix coach Charles Tiu was impressed with BJ Johnson’s PBA debut in the Governors’ Cup on Saturday night.

The Fuel Masters turned to Johnson, who carried them to a 98-86 win over Magnolia to open their campaign in the season-ending conference on a high note.

“He found his groove a bit later. He started a bit slow, but once he got a feel of the game, he was big and helped us weather storms. He got hot and we wanted to keep going to him,” said Tiu.

“Give credit to him, he made all the big plays for us today.”

The American journeyman, who had stints with several teams in the NBA, was active on both ends of the floor, finishing with a double-double of 34 points and 10 rebounds.

Johnson also helped the Fuel Masters limit Hotshots import KJ Buffen, who picked up three early fouls in the first quarter ans was ejected late in the game.

“I think it’s a big win for us, in this conf, all teams are tough so we wanted to come out strong and make a statement early,” said Johnson, whose aggressiveness held Buffen to just 15 points.

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“This game was tough, they fought the whole game, down the stretch, we kind of locked in and got the win.”

The do-it-all forward, though, said there is still lots of room to improve for himself and the entire Phoenix squad moving forward.

“We got the win but there’s still things we need to work on, we need to work on it during practice.”

“We did good things as well so our job is to focus on that and get rid of our mental mistakes so we can carry this [win] to the next one.”