San Miguel Beermen center June Mar Fajardo in a PBA Philippine Cup semifinals game against Rain or Shine Elastopainters. –PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines—There was not better time for June Mar Fajardo to bounce back from an abysmal game than Game 4 of the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals.
The Kraken did just that to give Rain or Shine the boot at Mall of Asia Arena on Friday.
In San Miguel’s 107-100 win over the Elasto Painters to advance to the Finals, Fajardo dominated with a monster double-double of 17 points and 23 rebounds.
This after going ice cold from the field in Game 3 on Wednesday at Dasmariñas City Arena.
READ: PBA: San Miguel sweeps Rain or Shine to return to Finals
“I give credit to my coaches and teammates because sometimes, I was really having difficulties with Rain or Shine’s defense. Credits to them for this great series. I had a hard time because every time I receive the ball, they collapsed on me,” said Fajardo in Filipino.
“In the last game, I had a lot of turnovers and misses so it’s good that we got the win now.”
In the last game, Fajardo’s performance looked good on paper with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
However, the seven-time league MVP struggled mightily to get to that number, missing 10 shots from the field and turning the ball three times.
READ: PBA: Don Trollano steps up for San Miguel as June Mar Fajardo struggles
Friday was a much, much different case for Fajardo. He sank eight of his 12 shots from the field for a blistering 66 percent shooting clip.
Though the numbers showed change, Fajardo made it clear that it was still hard for him to play against the Elasto Painters because of Beau Belga’s movements inside.
Fajardo needed some more push to keep up with Belga’s defense and offense and it came in the form of coach Jorge Gallent’s sermons.
“I hard a hard time against Beau—especially Beau—because he’s consistent from three, he has such a high percentage so I was forced to go out and defend. I couldn’t do anything about that but coach provided some help for me and it worked late in the game.”
“We didn’t give up, we had to be scolded by coach Jorge at the half because we were so relaxed and we had so many turnovers in the first half so it’s good that we all stepped up, especially in the fourth.”