Beermen face Bolts with lead in sight
MANILA—It’s not only San Miguel Beer that will put a four-game winning streak on the line when the Beermen slug it out with undermanned Meralco Wendesday night in the PBA Philippine Cup eliminations at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
Because whether he wants to talk about it or not, SMB coach Ato Agustin has to deal with questions about his personal winning streak.
“The important thing for me is for the team to continue winning games,” the 1992 MVP told reporters in Filipino recently. “I am very happy of course. But we have a goal, and that is to first make the semifinals (outright) by maintaining our high standing.”
Agustin and the Beermen could be in for a relatively easy outing at 7:30 p.m. against the Bolts, who will be without leading scorer Mac Cardona.
The Beermen haven’t lost since Agustin finally assumed head coaching duties for the Beermen.
San Miguel, tied for the lead with Talk ‘N Text at 5-1, goes into the game supremely confident, having escaped defeat in its last two games with last-second buckets courtesy of Alex Cabagnot, while the Bolts are still licking the wounds of a 66-81 loss to Powerade Friday night.
Incidentally, the Tigers try to rise above .500 when they clash with dangerous Air21 in the 5 p.m. first game.
Powerade is at 3-3 and will be locking horns with an Air21 side that certainly has the talent to explode but played pitifully the last time out and lost lopsidedly to lightly regarded Barako Bull, 79-89.
Cabagnot won Player of the Week honors hands down because of his last-second heroics in victories over Alaska and Derby Ace.
And Meralco needs to shut down the long-haired point guard to disrupt San Miguel’s offensive flow and get a chance to win the game in the end.
With Cardona out because of an ankle injury, Meralco has to make this game a defensive one since shooting it out won’t certainly work against the talent-laden Beermen.
“Scoring has become a huge challenge for us. San Miguel is strong and their confidence level is high, but I believe that we can still compete with our defense,” Meralco coach Ryan Gregorio said.
Meralco lost Cardona in the second quarter of that loss to Barako Bull, and Gregorio said that his ace swingman is still under excruciating pain and is listed as day-to-day for the Bolts.
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