Bay Area Dragons during a timeout in a game against the San Miguel Beermen. PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines—Bay Area pounced on San Miguel’s hole in the middle on Sunday night, picking the Beermen apart with methodical precision for a 113-87 decision that had the visitors keeping their place in the top half of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
Coach Brian Goorjian knew just how much San Miguel was clipped in the outing but was not too keen on framing June Mar Fajardo’s absence as the sole reason the Dragons ran away with such a huge victory.
“That hurt them for sure. He’s maybe the best player in the competition. They played off him and won a championship,” he said shortly after the contest at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“One thing about San Miguel as to why they won the championship [is that] they got tremendous depth. They’ve got backup bigs, they’re deep in the guard spots. Yeah, they definitely missed him. But they’ve got enough in there for us to feel good about beating a team of that quality without him,” he went on.
Fajardo is currently recuperating from a throat procedure to address a laryngeal fracture he sustained during San Miguel’s clash against Rain or Shine last Thursday.
The void left by the six-time Most Valuable Player allowed Andrew Nicholson, Bay Area’s import center, to thrive down low.
The Canadian finished with 39 points, 12 rebounds that went with two assists, two steals and a block while making San Miguel’s other big men look like they didn’t belong on the same floor with him.
Goorjian pointed out that the rout was largely thanks to the lessons afforded by an “embarrassing” loss to crowd darling Barangay Ginebra a week ago.
The seasoned mentor pointed out how vastly they improved on keeping the enemy under a hundred points, and how his charges were able to get to the foul line better this time out.
“We moved the ball a lot better after the first quarter (too),” he said. “What we discussed before—we learned from the loss which was nice to see.”
The Dragons were indeed better against the vaunted Beermen accounting for 21 assists, five blocks and six steals as opposed to the 15, six, and one they had against the Gin Kings.
“We got better against a quality team. So, real happy with tonight’s performance,” Goorjian said.