The Dragons have taken the league by storm and are will now soar to a historic PBA Finals against Ginebra.
And they have Kobey Lam and Andrew Nicholson to thank for.
The two drilled booming triples in crunchtime as Bay Area escaped San Miguel, 94-92, in Game 4 of their best-of-five semifinals series in the 2022 PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena on Wednesday, Dec. 21.
Down by one, 88-89, Lam nailed the first trey that shoved the Dragons ahead before Nicholson followed with a tough step-back triple over CJ Perez to give his team more breathing space. Despite the big shots, Bay Area was at the edge of its seat as it dodged three huge bullets from SMB in the final possession.
Trailing by two, 94-92, the Beermen tried to win it all in the final possession with CJ Perez taking the first triple try but went too strong. SMB recovered the ball and found an open Marcio Lassiter who likewise came up short on his attempt.
June Mar Fajardo collared the board once again but he also missed the short stab that could have sent the game to an extra period.
Nicholson posted a monster double-double of 42 points and 21 rebounds while Lam provided support with 26 points built on six triples.
With the win, the Dragons became the first guest team in the league to reach the PBA Finals for the first time in 42 years or since the Nicholas Stoodley's squad last completed the feat in 1980.
Perez put up his best performance in the series with 28 points while Scott added 25 points and 19 rebounds. Fajardo was limited to just nine point but collared 16 rebounds – all of which however went down the drain as the Beermen failed to defend their Comm’s Cup title.