SAN Miguel Beer’s June Mar Fajardo and Arizona Reid harass Alaska import Romeo Travis in Sunday’s Game 2. SMB coach Leo Austria (far left) says Alaska will find it hard to motivate its players if they go down, 0-3. AUGUST DELA CRUZ
LEO AUSTRIA knows precisely what’s up after tonight’s Game 3 of the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals.
“If we win, the percentages (of us going all the way) would be very high,” the San Miguel Beer coach said as his Beermen gun for a 3-0 lead over Alaska at Smart Araneta Coliseum today.
“It would be hard for them (Aces coaches) to motivate their players if they are down 0-3,” he went on as the Beermen take the momentum of a 103-95 Game 2 victory on Sunday night into the 7 p.m. contest.
Quite possibly, it could be hard to motivate the Aces at this point after throwing everything onto the floor on Sunday night and still getting the shorter end of the stick. They went scoreless in the last 2:56 after blowing a 95-90 lead.
“I’m sure there will be a big adjustment (for Alaska) in Game 3,” Austria said. “We have to keep on doing what we have been doing right.”
San Miguel has actually been doing only two things—getting the ball to June Mar Fajardo inside the paint, and if there is no shot, for Fajardo to pop the ball out and make the Beermen’s fluid ball rotation find the open man for a jumper.
That formula has worked wonders, with San Miguel shooting 17 triples in Game 2 as Marcio Lassiter drilled the Aces time and again to finish with five treys—the total of the entire Alaska crew for the night. Arizona Reid backed him up with four treys.
Not willing to give up a two-pointer to Fajardo underneath and taking a chance on the law of averages catching up on San Miguel from the outside was a gamble that Alaska coach Alex Compton and his staff took—and lost.
“It is really challenging with all the (outside) threats they have,” Compton said. “The most dominant local in the league, June Mar, requires attention on defense.”
Alex Cabagnot and Chris Ross have mocked Alaska’s full-court press, the very defense that put the Aces in the Philippine Cup Finals and gave them top seeding in the playoffs.
“We will do everything to win,” Austria said as he again tried to downplay their huge advantage. “2-0 is nothing.”
San Miguel won the PH Cup in seven gripping games against the Aces with the deciding game settled only after Arwind Santos nailed a broken-play three-pointer with 48 ticks left.
That title run is exactly why the Beermen are working so hard in this series, to prove that winning that time wasn’t a fluke.