It can be said that San Miguel wasn’t the picture of consistency in the first two games of the PBA Philippine Cup finals.
The four-peat seeking Beermen have blown two 20-point leads in both games as they failed to build a commanding 2-0 series lead heading into the break and instead settled for a 1-1 tie with the underdog Magnolia.
San Miguel’s 92-77 victory in Game 2 may have ended in a rather decent manner for the Beermen but they squandered a 21-point lead, 73-52, late in the third period and allowed the Hotshots to trim the margin to just eight, 75-68, early in the fourth.
Captain and 2013 MVP Arwind Santos said the week-long break will help them find a solution in preventing those collapses.
“The benefits of this break is of course we can rest up, actually even the other team can rest,” said Santos in Filipino in a chat with Inquirer. “And for us, this break can also help us find a way from collapsing when we have a big lead.”
San Miguel’s worse collapse in the series was in the opener when it saw its 20-point lead, 72-52, in the third quarter dissipate into the fourth when the Hotshots outscored the Beermen 30-14 in the last 12 minutes.
Magnolia eventually took Game 1, 105-103.
Santos said the only way to stop Magnolia from catching up to them, especially in the latter moments of the game, is to give it the respect from the first minute until the final buzzer.
“You really need to respect the Hotshots from start to finish because they can really blind side you,” said Santos who is averaging 21.5 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks so far in the series.
Game 3 is on Easter Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.