The Bolts (photo above) now have their eyes set on another powerhouse team in San Miguel and are confident of reaching an all-Filipino plateau. —Photos by PBA IMAGES
Looking like happy campers after the final buzzer sounded on Sunday night, the Meralco Bolts celebrated their first playoff series win over Barangay Ginebra and are definitely looking forward to the next formidable challenge ahead in the PBA Philippine Cup.
“This is one step that we’re able to get over the hump against Ginebra,” Chris Newsome, who completed a triple-double in a highwire 106-104 Game 3 win that wrapped up their quarterfinal series, told reporters. “But there’s another goal that we haven’t reached either, which is getting to the Finals of the all-Filipino.”
And to do that, Meralco made it known that it will be ready to fight tooth and nail against powerhouse San Miguel Beer, sounding confident in the same way the Bolts did when they drew their nemesis Gin Kings in a best-of-three match-up in the first round of the playoffs.
Interim coach Luigi Trillo, hailed for holding the fort in the absence of Norman Black, is bracing for a challenge greater than the recent series as the Bolts look to put all the stops against the talented Beermen.
“It’s a different animal altogether,” said Trillo of the coming Final Four series that starts on Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum. “They have June Mar Fajardo, they have [Mo] Tautuaa, they have Vic Manuel.
“You look at them pound-for-pound, at one time, Tautuaa and Vic were arguably the best post guys in the league when June Mar was injured.”
Other semis also starts
Defending champion TNT and Magnolia clash in the other semifinal series that also starts on Wednesday.
Newsome reiterated that they welcomed the challenge of facing Ginebra for the seventh time, never mind if he and the Bolts were 0-6 against the crowd-darlings since the 2016 Governors’ Cup when Justin Brownlee nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer for a championship that reverberated all over the country.
“We enjoy this challenge of playing Ginebra again. We’re not trying to avoid it at all,” said Newsome, shrugging off the frustrations of a lackluster Game 2 by posting 21 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds in the series clincher.
“This is something that we’ve been looking forward to, we’ve been working for a long time and we finally got it,” he added. “It’s nice to have that monkey off our back.”
Trillo then rattled off additional reasons—or pieces—why San Miguel will be a tough nut to crack.
“They [also] have CJ Perez, [Marcio] Lassiter, [Chris] Ross and they’re gonna be a handful,” added Trillo.
Still, those names didn’t stop him from being optimistic—and professing trust on his wards.
“But then, I’m confident in our guys that we can put up a good fight.”
San Miguel will come into the series the fresher side, having watched from the sidelines after dusting off Blackwater in just one game.
But Newsome remains undeterred.
“I think the motivation for us is actually that Meralco has never been to the Finals in the all-Filipino, and I think we can use that,” Newsome said.
“We still have more history that we can make.”