And just like his star playmaker Paul Lee, Victolero will stop at nothing to figure out a way to topple a San Miguel team, which can move on the brink of a fourth consecutive all-Filipino crown with a victory in Game 4 on Wednesday night at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“We won’t stop looking for ways to beat them,” said Victolero, sounding confident that the Hotshots still have plenty left in their tank to overcome a San Miguel team, whose greatness has been on full display in the last two games of the series.
Whether it was the starting unit led by June Mar Fajardo and Arwind Santos or shock troopers like Brian Heruela and Matt Ganuelas-Rosser, the Beermen’s superiority has been underlined by double-digit wins as they look untouchable in their march to a fourth straight crown.
Even Lee, the mercurial guard, who remains in a slump in the series, acknowledged that another San Miguel win can spell the end of the Hotshots’ resistance.
Game 4, he said, will be do-or-die for the Hotshots, whose title bid suffered a blow following injuries to Marc Pingris and Justin Melton in the semifinals.
“It will be hard to go 1-3 down so the next game is a big game for us,” said Lee, who had 16 points on 6-of-16 shooting in Game 3, before missing the fourth quarter due to a finger injury. “San Miguel is just a strong team. Kuya Ping (Marc Pingris) and the coaches are telling us to just double our efforts on defense.”
Victolero said the Hotshots are left with no choice, but to play an almost perfect game to overcome the Beermen.
“We need to find a way to play 48 minutes of consistent basketball,” said Victolero. “We relax even for a single minute and they’ve already built a cushion. When we neutralized June Mar in Game 2, the shooters took charge.
We did a pretty good job on June Mar and Arwind Santos in Game 3, but their others guys, especially those coming off the bench, stepped up.”
The problems seem to add up for Victolero with every game. “Even the bench players are now a big concern for us. It just shows their firepower. We have to pick our poison.”
San Miguel coach Leo Austria refused to get carried away by their advantage—and how the series has turned out.
“I hope we can sustain this,” said Austria in Filipino. “From the start, people were expecting us to dominate the series. But I have to caution my team that Magnolia is a contender. It’s a matter of time they will get the winning attitude.”
Meanwhile, Kia Picanto has changed its franchise name to Columbian Dyip.
The name change came after the Ayala Corporation’s acquisition of the distribution rights of the Korean automotive brand. It is the franchise’s sixth name change since entering the league in 2014 as Kia Sorento.