Alaska-SMB title tiff on
June Mar Fajardo’s knee injury isn’t what was initially feared, and depending on the need and if the swelling subsides overnight, San Miguel Beer’s heart-and-soul might just suit up Sunday when the Beermen and Alaska open their Smart Bro-PBA Philippine Cup title series.
“He’s a game time decision,” San Miguel coach Leo Austria told the Inquirer over the phone yesterday. “Our doctors said he can play, maybe the second, third or fourth game. He can even play [today] if the swelling subsides.”
Fajardo was in a scary sequence in the third quarter against Rain or Shine on Friday night, when he lay on the floor grimacing and clutching his left knee. It was initially reported that he was out for the best-of-seven title series that begins 5 p.m. at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“His ACL and MCL are intact,” Austria said. “There’s almost no more pain. Right now, what he feels is just a contusion after hitting his knee on the floor [during the play].”
Alaska will come into the series very well-rested, while the Beermen have gone through a rigorous grind against the Elasto Painters.
And this is something that worries Austria.
“This will be a very tough series for us. Alaska is not the No. 1 team [after the eliminations] by accident,” he said. “Alaska has improved a lot from the team we beat [in the Finals] last year and we don’t have ample time to prepare for them.”
Austria said that the possibility of playing without his best player for Game 1 is big, but stressed that he has utmost faith in the rest of his team, more so after they showed their true worth two nights ago against the Elasto Painters.
“But if we are 100% healthy, aba, may katapat sila (they are in for a tough fight),” Austria said.
Alaska won in their only clash in the elimination round, and the Aces have peaked at the right time and will be coming in with fresher legs after they bundled out GlobalPort last Tuesday in Game 5 of their Final Four match-up.
The Beermen and the Aces are battling in the Finals in three of the last four conferences, with San Miguel and Austria looking to stay perfect in that streak.
San Miguel triumphed in a Game 7 to remember last season, when Arwind Santos nailed a broken play three-pointer that proved to be the marginal basket.
In the Governors’ Cup, San Miguel swept the Aces.
Alaska coach Alex Compton acknowledges that his Aces are playing at a very high level of late, but believes that it will take a lot of doing to score his first title playoff triumph against the Beermen.
“I also thought that we were playing at a high level last year and we still came up short,” Compton had said. “It will be a very tough series.”
