Santos: San Miguel needs to start strong vs Rain or Shine

San Miguel’s Arwind Santos vs Rain or Shine’s Chris Tiu. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

Rain or Shine just picked its poison, and so far, its gamble is paying off.

For the two games of the semifinals duel between the Beermen and the Elasto Painters, Yeng Guiao’s crew has allowed two-time MVP June Mar Fajardo wreak havoc inside. In return, the defense rather focused on his supporting crew, rendering the Cebuano giant gasping for help.

But Arwind santos is not losing hope.

“We’re not out yet,” he said in Filipino. “There were times that it was hard to force it even if I wanna help in offense. but we can beat them even it was June Mar who’s scoring inside but it just so happened that their defense is more focused on us.”

Fajardo has netted 37.0 points, 17.5 rebounds, and 3.0 blocks in the series’ first pair of games, underscoring the heavy lifting the big man is doing just to keep San Miguel afloat.

Also, for the second straight game, the Beermen had to dig their way back from 20-plus point leads. Unfortunately, Game 2 saw that fightback fail in the end, leveling the series to 1-1.

Santos believes that with a little bit of tinkering, San Miguel can once again rekindle its deadly form come Game 3.

“We nust need adjustment on defense. We need to get the strong start because we always beat us to it. We just need to get ahead next time,” he said.

The Beermen are also not pushing the panic button as they still have the chance to regain the lead on Saturday.

“What’s good is that they’ve only just tied the game. So now it’s a best-of-5, we start again. The battle will even be better,”