June Mar Fajardo and the Beermen hope to rebound from a Game 1 defeat. —PBA IMAGES
TNT’s focal point in Game 1 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals was limiting San Miguel Beer’s foremost weapon in June Mar Fajardo.
It worked, albeit barely, and the Tropang Giga needed a widely debated Jayson Castro red light-beater before pocketing an 86-84 victory on Sunday night.
And things are only about to get harder.
The defending champions intend to stick with the same game plan in Tuesday’s Game 2 at Smart Araneta Coliseum in hopes of seizing control of the best-of-seven showdown.
But TNT will be taking on some unique hurdles.
Head coach Chot Reyes will be on the other side of the continent, tending to Gilas Pilipinas in Beirut, Lebanon, and the Beermen, naturally, will take the Big Dome’s court a vengeful lot.
Fortunately for TNT, the challenges brought on by the global health crisis have long prepared the club for a bind like this.
“Coach has been building us up for something like this,” Roger Pogoy said. “We all know we’re still in a pandemic, and we don’t know who we could miss [on the court].”
“So we’re just ready. We’re going to play for this team—and for coach as well,” he added.
Tip-off is 5:45 p.m. and Fajardo, the Beermen cornerstone, is also looking to take advantage of their opponent’s predicament.
The six-time Most Valuable Player awardee, who starred for San Miguel in the series opener, knows how exactly to do that.
“We need to address that—that whenever we’re leading big, we tend to relax on defense,” Fajardo said.
“We are reminded by our coaches. And we need to work that bit out,” he added.
Reyes will be missing Game 3 as well and in his stead, assistant Sandy Arespacochaga and newly minted San Beda mentor Yuri Escueta will be calling the shots.
“I’m very intentional in developing my coaching staff so that in situations like this, they can step in,” said Reyes who vowed to check in from Lebanon, where the national team is playing a Fiba (International Basketball Federation) World Cup qualifying window match. INQ