A DECIDED underdog when the playoffs started and needing two overtimes just to stay alive, San Miguel Beer has emerged more than a strong bet to score a breakthrough in the Philippine Basketball Association.
By tying the best-of-seven title series of the Smart Bro Philippine Cup after six games, the Beermen get the chance to become the first team to go 4-0 after a 0-3 start with another victory over the Alaska Aces this Wednesday at Mall of Asia Arena.
And the odds now slightly favor the defending champion Beermen, who seemed to have regained their confidence, old fire and magic with the return to action of the league’s most important big man—the 6-foot-10 center June Mar Fajardo.
The reigning league back-to-back Most Valuable Player hurt his left knee and didn’t finish Game 6 of SMB’s semifinal duel against Rain or Shine some three weeks ago. He was spared from graver injury but the knee was swollen and he had to rest.
With Fajardo temporarily out of the way, the Aces, starring Vic Manuel, bulldozed their way past the Beermen successively behind strong finishes in the last quarter and dumped them in a 0-3 hole that no one, even those in the NBA and other leagues according to experts, had come out of.
But on the day Fajardo showed up to receive his fourth Best Player of the Conference award before Game 4, the Beermen finally found the breaks that eluded them in the first three games and salvaged the game, overtime though it may be, to avoid the ignominious sweep.
With his left knee wrapped in an imported stabilizing brace, Fajardo finally got going in Game 5. He came off the bench to replace Jay-R Reyes late in the first quarter and, despite playing scant minutes, contributed 13 points. Fajardo also had a hand in the 86-73 overtime win with his free throw touching off a 10-point blast early in the extension that doomed the Aces.
Game 6 changed the complexion of the playoffs with the Beermen now assuming the role of favorite by posting the most authoritative victory by any team in the series, 106-89. Marcio Lassiter and Fajardo backup Yancy de Ocampo delivered like no other with a 17-3 bomb midway in the fourth period finishing off the Aces. Lassiter finished with 26 points and De Ocampo wound up just two points behind Fajardo’s 16.
It was actually the first time that a series was deadlocked at 3-3 after a 3-0 lead. In 1987, Alaska won back-to-back games after losing the first three to Gordon’s Gin of the Ginebra franchise in the 1987 Commissioner’s Cup finals, but lost in Game 6.
The Aces, who own a victory over the Beermen in their first meeting in the tournament, still have a shot at turning back the Beermen but they seem now in need of the Beer-racle (as one SMB fan displayed among the signs in the stand in Game 5) that is now happening to San Miguel.
While Alaska is going for its 14th title and and its first since the 2013 Commissioner’s Cup, San Miguel, with 21 crowns overall, is going for its third in the last four tournaments with its last two titles also coming at the expense of the Aces.
But no title is more important now than the challenge to history that San Miguel and Alaska will take on two days from now.