Austria, San Miguel remain cautious as 3-1 deficit ‘still manageable’

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net

San Miguel is on the cusp of a return to the PBA Philippine Cup Finals, but head coach Leo Austria is still not about to get complacent.

He knows what first hand that a two-game lead in a seven-game series isn’t insurmountable  as he was once booted out of that apex when he was still playing in the PBA.

Austria was part of the Shell Turbo Chargers team that lost a 3-1 series lead in the 1991 Finals of the PBA’s first conference.

And the team that made the comeback? It was Ginebra.

“A 3-1 deficit is still manageable for the opponent,” said Austria after leading San Miguel to a 102-81 beating of the Gin Kings in Game 4 Thursday at Mall of Asia Arena.

“I will never forget that, we were leading 3-1 against Ginebra when I was still a player with Shell, and then we lost,” added Austria in Filipino.

In the PBA’s 43-year history, only four teams have come back from a 3-1 deficit and Ginebra is part of that exclusive club.

Ginebra may have come back from that deficit before, but San Miguel has its own chapter in PBA history when it erased a 0-3 deficit in Philippine Cup finals against Alaska in 2016.

And Austria is well aware of the “Beeracle” that he proudly orchestrated.

“We came back from 0-3 and we won 4-3,” said Austria who has never lost a seven-game series in the PBA. “Everything’s possible so we know we can’t relax one bit.”