For Beermen, it’s rust; for Bolts, well, it’s San Miguel

Will the Bolts have enough in its core to stop June Mar Fajardo (with ball) and the Beermen? —PBA IMAGES

Coach Jorge Gallent admitted that the long rest may not be advantageous to San Miguel Beer ahead of its showdown with Meralco for the PBA Philippine Cup crown.

“I’m just scared that we might be rusty,” Gallent said on Monday when the league held a press conference featuring both teams at Crowne Plaza in Ortigas. “But we will see on Wednesday.”

The Beermen haven’t played since May 26 when they sealed a four-game sweep of the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters to get into the “fourth step,” as Gallent has always described, in their mission of repeating as all-Filipino champions and add a remarkable 30th trophy to San Miguel Corporation’s flagship team.

But San Miguel had to go into a long wait after Meralco needed the full seven games—winning the last two matches of its showdown against rival Barangay Ginebra after falling behind 3-2 in the series—to reach the Finals for the fifth time in franchise history.

It was only last Friday when the Beermen began mapping out a game plan solely for the Bolts, whose Game 7 mastery of the Gin Kings in San Jose, Batangas, is something that could play out during the course of the tussle for the PBA’s most important prize.

Even with the concerns, Gallent also feels that San Miguel has been doing quite well preparing for the series.

“We’re kinda OK because during those 11 days, we did a lot of scrimmages and planned what to do if Ginebra or Meralco won,” said Gallent.

Perhaps part of that preparation was to see what San Miguel did wrong in dropping its final game of the eliminations to Meralco last May 4, the result denying the Beermen an 11-game sweep.Meralco won, 95-92, in Batangas City, a result that was so important for the Bolts, who eventually qualified to the playoffs as the No. 3 seed.

“At that time, it was a must-win for us,” said Bolts coach Luigi Trillo. “Obviously, San Miguel came in already sure of the No. 1 spot [in the playoffs], but you could feel that they are also going for an 11-0 sweep. But that’s in the past. One game won’t define our series.”

Should that give the Bolts the psychological edge over the talented Beermen?

“I don’t think so,” Gallent said. “It was a game where our minds were [focused on a] sweep, but Meralco also had their backs against the wall. If they lost that game, [they might miss] the playoffs. They really played hard, also we played really hard to try and get that sweep, but that didn’t happen.

Questions

“But it’s done, we’ve learned from our mistakes and we have to get better with it,” he added.

The series will feature some questions that will be answered, among them if Meralco rookie Brandon Bates and veteran Raymond Almazan can hold their own against June Mar Fajardo and if San Miguel’s deep roster that also includes CJ Perez, Jericho Cruz, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross and Don Trollano can live up to its billing against the Meralco core led by Chris Newsome, Chris Banchero, Allein Maliksi, Bong Quinto and Cliff Hodge.

There’s also the quest of Meralco’s to finally win its first-ever PBA title after so many heartbreaks in title showdowns with Barangay Ginebra, four in the Governors’ Cup. The Bolts hope that their first Philippine Cup Finals appearance can result in a breakthrough. INQ