Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net
San Miguel may be way ahead when it comes to experience in the Finals, but Marcio Lassiter believes it’s not just all about that.
The Beermen are moving closer to their fourth straight PBA Philippine Cup championship because of their enviable chemistry as well.
“Experience helps, but I just think it’s our chemistry,” said Lassiter after San Miguel’s 111-87 Game 3 win on Sunday.
“We have so much chemistry with one another. We’ve been playing for a while. We’re just playing our style. We know June Mar (Fajardo) is our focal point, and we’re gonna continue to attack and give him good looks and just feed off him. If they double him, we’re gonna be ready to score. So we’re just gonna see how they’ll defend us, and we just gotta make adjustments on the fly.”
.@TheSMBeermen’s Marcio Lassiter gave props to their bench which led to their 24-point Game 3 blowout. #PBA2018 #PBAFinals pic.twitter.com/LqjM1xXuQP
— Randolph B. Leongson (@RLeongsonINQ) April 1, 2018
That was exactly how it went down in the second half of Game 3.
Fajardo shredded the Hotshots’ defense in the third quarter, dropping 12 of his 21 points in the period for the slim 75-68 advantage, before taking a backseat and allowing the second unit to run away to start the fourth quarter en route to the 24-point triumph.
“That’s our style of play,” said Lassiter, who himself finished with 24 points on a 5-of-9 shooting from downtown.
“We’ve been doing it for a while. We just wanna continue doing it for 48 minutes consistently. When are shots are going and our defense goes on, it’s just pretty tough to guard. We know we’re capable of doing that every night, so we just have to come out and prepare ourselves on Wednesday.”
With San Miguel taking a 2-1 lead in the championship series, Lassiter knows how important this opportunity is.
But with how his side performed on Sunday, he is pretty confident that the Beermen already figured out what needs to be done to write another historic moment.
“This is crucial. This is a pivotal game for us. It’s really important to come out strong in the first few minutes of the game. We know that if we play the same way we played tonight, given the effort, the energy, the defense, the shots, we can have a good process going into Game 4,” he said.