San Mig Coffee coach Tim Cone tried so hard to downplay the Mixers’ dominating form in Game 1 of their PBA Commissioner’s Cup title series against Talk ‘N Text on Friday night at the Araneta Coliseum.

Supposedly fatigued for taking the full route to get here, the Mixers came out the more aggressive side and dealt the Tropang Texters a severe beating, 95-80, for the headstart in their best-of-five series that also put a halt to Talk ‘N Text’s magnificent 13-game winning streak.

Saying that they just caught the Texters on a bad night, Cone also belittled his squad’s achievement of being the first to put a blot on Talk ‘N Text’s erstwhile perfect record this conference.

“Breaking their streak was just a ‘pogi’ point,” Cone said. “But my players aren’t interested in ‘pogi’ points. What we set out to do tonight was try to get a win and gain a good start in the series.” The Mixers engaged the Texters in a nip-and-tuck game in the first two periods, settling for a 44-40 lead at the half before letting it all hang loose in the third where San Mig opened up leads of as huge as 17 points.

“A couple of things happened tonight,” Cone said when asked how they blew the Texters off the court. “First, was we carried the momentum of our last win (in Game 5 of their Final Four clash with Air21) and that gave us a mental lift.

“And second, obviously, they (Texters) weren’t sharp tonight,” continued Cone. “They made some uncharacteristic turnovers and missed some three-point shots. We didn’t see the real Talk ‘N Text team tonight.

“But we’ll see them Sunday (in Game 2) for sure.” James Yap, the former two-time MVP, scored 12 points in the first two periods and established the character of the Mixers offensively, before Peter June Simon and rookie Ian Sangalang took turn in hitting the big shots in the third that stung the Texters.

Talk ‘N Text tried to make a game out of it but just was not fluid enough in the second half, falling into a spate of errors and bad decisions.

So out of tune were the Texters that Jimmy Alapag finished with just three points and Ranidel De Ocampo five – numbers far from their respective averages that helped doom Talk ‘N Text.

And coach Norman Black readily took the loss in stride.

“We were thoroughly outplayed tonight,” Black, also a Grand Slam winner like Cone, said. “I thought San Mig was a lot more aggressive than we were. They really denied us what we wanted to do in offense. They deserve this win.” Black, however, pointed out that coming into the game from a week’s rest and supposedly being rusty had nothing to do with the lopsided way that they lost.

“No.1 thing that we lacked is the energy,” Black said. “They came out with a lot of energy tonight. Luckily in a series, one (lost) game is just one game. We can come back and beat them next game.

“My concern coming into Game 2 is getting my guys physically ready for the next game,” he said. “We have to play with a little more fight, intensity and energy.” The second game is slated Sunday afternoon at 5 also at the Big Dome, and Black and his Texters would need to treat it as a do-or-die game.