Meralco looks to avoid a repeat of the first championship showdown with Barangay Ginebra San Miguel when it goes into Game 4 of the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals with the chance of taking a commanding 3-1 lead.
The Bolts won two of the first three games during the 2016 title series of the same conference, only for the Gin Kings to win the next three to take the title highlighted by Justin Brownlee’s memorable three at the buzzer in the Game 6 clincher.
Coach Norman Black would rather dust off that memory as he tries to turn the tables this time in the series’ fourth game set Wednesday, April 12 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“Just living in the present, which is we’re up 2-1,” Black said after Meralco’s 83-74 win in Game 3 last Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena. “We’d be back on Wednesday. We got a couple of days to get our legs fresh, and so do they.
“But in this business, you can’t live in the past. You have to live with what’s going on right now,” added Black, who has won all eight championships when up 2-1 until that 2016 encounter.
While Black attempts to create new history, Cliff Hodge said that first defeat still lingers.
“I’m not gonna lie, we were up 2-1 in the first series and that is something that’s gonna go away,” Hodge said. “We were up 2-1 and we were going into that fourth quarter with almost a 3-1 lead.
“So that’s always in the back of your mind and you always just wanna go out and get another one,” he added.
Hodge also said the mentality for Game 4 will be as if a bigger stake is on the line for the Bolts.
“For me, it’s do-or-die,” said Hodge. “We’ll treat this as if it was Game 7, and just try to come up with a win no matter what, put our bodies, put our lives on the line and just do whatever is possible to get a win.”