Digging into the fire is core of Game 3

Both coaches, that of loser San Miguel Beer and winner Alaska Milk, manifested puzzlement at how Game 3 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals shaped up on Sunday.

Experts had a way of sizing up the situation: Alaska surpassed or overdid itself.

Fine, but there definitely was a more compelling reason than that.

Looking at the contrasting intensity of the rival squads, it’s easy to surmise that it was a case of a basketball match soaring and exploding into a firefight, specifically in the final quarter.

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Still, that won’t be exact, because there were other factors other than Alaska’s incredible intensity that turned the sweeping tide in favor of the Aces.

Leo Austria: “This is all my fault, I wasn’t able to control the game.”

Alex Compton: “I’m no genius, I didn’t call magical plays out there. I really don’t know.”

Both coaches were right.

But then, it was not a simple case of the Alaska Aces brimming with inexhaustible firepower.

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A look into the core of Game 3 would bare that the key factor was the contrasting end-game stands of June Mar Fajardo for San Miguel and Calvin Abueva for Alaska, the title playoffs’ main men.

Fajardo, giant of a San Miguel star, was cut down to size by Alaska’s sizzling speedsters. He was practically blown off the court, pitifully shackled in the final quarter after he was made to stand up to a blitz upheaval despite lumbering big-man limitations.

Indeed, it was great defense, a united stand, that forced the San Miguel final-quarter meltdown, although there’s no missing the fact that Abueva’s beastly might, mainly off the boards, capped by his solid, fiery leadership, did it for Alaska.

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All told, San Miguel could yet strike back, but it must do something drastic to save main pillar Fajardo from again being caught flatfooted before allowing himself to be consumed in the final-quarter firefight.

San Miguel did a swell job by agreeing to a final-quarter bar-room scramble, which paid off dividends in Game 2.

It was just too bad that San Miguel had to realize too late that Alaska’s lightning sparkle and sharpness could also strike twice, with the lost-giant Fajardo again reduced to a predictable team dead weight—as had happened in Game 1—last Sunday.