San Miguel Beermen bench during Game 5 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—San Miguel’s Chris Ross is well aware of the theme of this year’s PBA Philippine Cup Finals.
Though Meralco is a win away from closing out the best-of-seven series, Ross still believes that the Beermen remain in a good place to defend their All-Filipino conference crown.
“We’re good,” Ross assured after their 92-88 loss to the Bolts at Araneta Coliseum on Friday.
“The series has been going this way, we win one, they win one, we win another. We’ve been in this situation before, it’s part of a series. Our morale’s where it always was and we’re ready to go for Sunday.”
READ: PBA Finals: June Mar Fajardo confident San Miguel will bounce back
Ross was one of San Miguel’s guards who struggled mightily in what could’ve been a game for the Beermen to take the commanding 3-2 lead.
He finished with just three points on 1-of-6 shooting which hampered June Mar Fajardo’s monster showing of 38 points and 18 rebounds.
San Miguel guard Chris Ross in the PBA Philippine Cup Finals. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
Guards Marcio Lassiter and CJ Perez also had difficulties on the offensive end with just six and 17 points, respectively.
But while offense will be a point of concern in Game 6, Ross said playing great defense will also be key to avoiding the scenario of the Bolts winning the title.
READ: PBA Finals: History on the side of Meralco Bolts after Game 5 win
“It’s not really just me, it’s everyone. We’re switching with guards and whoever gets the matchup just has to guard. We’re not really setting up matchups, we’re just guarding whoever’s in front of us and we go from there,” said Ross.
The pesky guard also emphasized that San Miguel is in the right headspace.
Instead of thinking about a possible Game 7, Ross said they’re not worried about next week but are more concerned with the task at hand, which is beating Meralco on Sunday at the same venue at 6:15 pm.
“We’re not worried about that. We’re just worried about Game 6. We’re just going to go watch film, fix what we got to fix, win on Sunday and possibly be ready for Game 7 on Wednesday and I like our chances.”