Cebuano June Mar Fajardo of San Miguel escapes the defense of fellow Cebuano big man Greg Slaughter of Ginebra in Game 2 of the PBA Finals last Sunday. Inquirer
Sister teams San Miguel, Ginebra clash for 2-1 lead in PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals
Leo Austria now knows what to do, and Tim Cone certainly knows what not to.
With that in mind – and after two blowout results – San Miguel Beer and Barangay Ginebra go at it for the third time as the defending champion Beermen and the Gin Kings break a 1-1 tie in their PBA Commissioner’s Cup title playoffs Wednesday night at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
Austria did the adjustments to rebound from what he said was a “humiliating” Game 1 loss, dishing out the humiliating of their own two nights later when Cone made a critical error of starting with a small lineup that eventually sewed up the best-of-seven championship series.
San Miguel, Austria said, was just “70 percent” intensity wise in Game 1, and that his Beermen played with a walk through attitude to lose big.
And just when the collective confidence of the Kings were at their highest following a 127-99 win, Austria turned things around by having his squad play 100 percent on the way to a 134-109 thumping.
Well, Cone did gamble a bit. And he lost in a very big way.
“We tried to disrupt their game plan and we kind of fell right to it,” Cone said after keeping the 7-foot Greg Slaughter and do-it-all guard Scottie Thompson out of the starting unit. “We made turnovers early, nine in the first quarter, and they turned that to transition points and easy baskets.
“It kind of mushroomed from there,” Cone went on. “We never recovered.”
Ginebra played to its never-say-die attitude despite being down early, but the Kings now know that they can’t have the Beermen gather steam at any point in the contest, for San Miguel fights for the lead like crazy once it gets to set the pace.
“We out-hustled them,” Austria said when asked to finger the turning point of Game 2. “This is our game.”
Chippier Game 3
Though the second game was also a blowout, it wasn’t bereft of the intensity of a championship, as things got ugly in the dying minutes with Arwind Santos giving
Thompson a cheap shot and Chris Ross and Joe Devance throwing elbows in one rebound play.
Cone will make the adjustments for the 7 p.m. contest, which he expects to be “chippier” because of the intensity prevailing even between the two sister teams.
“It certainly got chippy and you will see that the whole series,” Cone, a 20-time champion with two Grand Slams, said. “We’re sister teams but we’re not friendly. We see them as a mountain to be conquered and they see us as a threat to their throne.”
Series Recap:
(Series tied 1-1)
Game 1- Ginebra 127, SMB 99
Game 2- SMB 134, Ginebra 109