San Miguel and Magnolia are not leaving anything to chance as they go for the throat of their respective foes in Game 3 of their best-of-five semifinal series at the Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday, Jan. 28.

The top seed Hotshots are eyeing to end a three-year Finals drought when they try to close out the series against the Phoenix Fuel Masters in the opening game at 3 p.m.

The Beermen, also looking for their first Finals stint in the import-flavored conference since the 2019 Commissioner’s Cup, are determined to do the same against defending champions Barangay Ginebra Kings in the second game at 6:15 p.m.

Both Magnolia and San Miguel are actually on the verge of completing a best-of-five semifinals sweep which are rarely achieved even in their long franchise histories.

The last time the Magnolia franchise swept a best-of-five series was traced back 31 years ago when it was still carrying the name Coney Island and was still under then rookie coach Chot Reyes. The team only needed three games to dispatch Swift to barge into the 1993 All-Filipino Cup Finals.

SMB, on the other hand, last recorded the feat 21 years ago when it swept Sta.Lucia, then coached by now SMC sports director Alfrancis Chua, in the semifinals of the 2003 Reinforced Conference semis.

Getting a shot at history though are far from the minds of the two team’s head coaches, knowing full well that closing such a competitive series will be the hardest.

“That’s the hardest part. That’s the hardest game, the closeout game. I’ve been here before and we need to lock in now. We don’t need to celebrate wala pa kaming na-achieve. We will prepare and look at the film to see how they are able to comeback on that double digit lead,” said Magnolia head coach Chito Victolero.

SMB mentor Jorge Gallent echoed the same sentiments and even stressed that his team is not interested in pulling off the sweep even if doing so would be some sort of sweet revenge after being at the receiving end of 3-0 sweep loss to Ginebra in their last semifinals encounter.

“The (sweep) didn’t cross my mind. Ginebra is a good team. Ginebra is a well-coached team so we cannot just relax and say that ‘we were swept by them last conference and we will do the same’. We just have to work as hard as how we played in Games 1 and 2,” said Gallent.

He might have a point though as Ginebra was the only team out of 43 teams since 1993 to pull off a complete reversal after going down 0-2 in a best-of-five semifinals.