Marcio Lassiter. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
After Marcio Lassiter’s game was spoiled in Game 2 after Rain or Shine snatched the victory, it was his turn to exact revenge by raining on Wendell McKines’ parade in Game 3.
The San Miguel defense limited the Elasto Painters reinforcement to just 39 points on Monday, compared to the 53 he tallied two days before, as the Beermen took a 2-1 series lead with a 114-108 victory.
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While incredible shooting night on Friday was a memorable one, Lassiter would rather have the win any day.
“I want to win. I felt like if we came out victorious (on Game 2), it doesn’t matter what the stats are to me,” he said. “It’s probably a great personal achievement, but none of that matters to me. It’s just about winning to get us closer to our goal and get us to the championship.”
“Ten triples is a great achievement, but winning the game is more important. Jeff Chan won the game for them. It’s all about winning the game for us,” Lassiter said, looking back at game 2 when Rain or Shine came back from 20 points down to pull the rug from under the Beermen.
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But it didn’t take long for San Miguel to get back at the Elasto Painters.
“It helps that we now have the advantage and take full advantage of being up, 2-1. I think that whatever happened already happened. Good thing that we had a game in two days so we could bounce back fast and erase that game,” said Lassiter, who was a huge support for Reid and Alex Cabagnot in Game 3 where he had 17 points on a 4-of-6 shooting night from rainbow country.
“It was crucial for us to bounce back, learn from our mistakes, and that’s what we did today. We got some stops in the end, AZ (Reid) played well down the stretch, all of us stepped up today,” he said. “It was tough but luckily, we had another game. I’m glad that it wasn’t Game 5. It’s always good to redeem ourselves.”
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Now, all eyes are in Game 4 where the Beermen could close out the series and set up a finals meeting with Alaska.
But Lassiter knows that it wouldn’t be easy with Wendell McKines and the rest of Rain or Shine hell-bent to force a Game 5.
“Wendell’s a great player and he’s going to get his points. It’s our job to make it difficult for him. Tonight, we made all the stops that we needed and we just kept on the gas pedal and came out victorious,” he said. “We’re going to take each game as we always do, one game at a time, make sure we came out ready, compete, and follow the game plan. We need to see how Rain or Shine makes adjustments. We just got to be dialed in and ready for the game.” CFC