San Miguel Beer looks to bounce back from its upset defeat against Alaska Saturday, Sept. 4 in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Don Honorio Ventura State University in Bacolor, Pampanga.
The Beermen are expected to come out and show why they are one of the perennial contenders in the 4:35 p.m. match after opening the restart of their campaign in a bad way with a 110-104 overtime loss to the Terrafirma Dyip three days prior.
Also a key game is the 2 p.m. clash between NLEX and Phoenix Super LPG, teams that pull off contrasting wins last Sept. 2.
NLEX defeated Alaska, 84-74, while Phoenix rallied from 15 in the final minutes to stun Rain or Shine, 78-77, when a struggling Matthew Wright found a way to score a go-ahead basket in the dying seconds.
All four teams can move up or go down with just one result, given the complexion of the standings.
NLEX and SMB are tied for fourth at 3-2 while Phoenix and Alaska share eighth spot with surging Terrafirma at 2-4.
SMB hopes to pull out all the stops in order to get back to winning ways led by Terrence Romeo, who scored 28 against Terrafirma.
But the Beermen eventually left themselves scratching their heads as they blew a 10-point lead with four minutes left in regulation which enabled the Dyip to force overtime, and eventually stole a victory.
San Miguel entered the contest with a three-game winning streak after dropping its opening assignment to Meralco last July 18.
For the Road Warriors, they’ll try to put up a collective effort that’s doubly-needed in the absence of top star Kiefer Ravena.
Wright, who missed all of his previous 14 shots prior to the winning attempt against ROS, is eager to show why he averaged a league-best 19.8 points before the conference was put on hold last month.