San Miguel Beer aims to get back at Eastern as they figure on a rematch in the PBA Season 49 Commissioner’s Cup on Sunday, Dec. 22 – just a couple of days after their first meeting in the East Asia Super League.

The Beermen are looking to avenge their 71-62 loss against Eastern in Hong Kong and unlike that time, it is now the Filipinos’ turn to have some sort of home court advantage at the PhilSports Arena in their clash scheduled at 7:30 p.m.

Setting up the table for the mouth-watering duel is the clash between Rain or Shine and Terrafirma, with the former looking to keep its hot streak going and the latter hoping to break out of its slump.

SMB, in the PBA, is currently on a two-game win streak since the return of head coach Leo Austria, but the team couldn’t complete a late rally in the final frame to try and turn back the home team.

The Beermen, however, are expected to parade a new import in Jabari Narcis as he fills in the shoes of Torren Jones, who sustained a bloody nose during the EASL game against Eastern.

Jones formed a towering frontcourt combination with June Mar Fajardo, both dropping 19 points apiece against the Hong Kong-based crew. Guys like Juami Tiongson, CJ Perez and Marcio Lassiter also need to bring their A-game should they wish to prevent SMB from suffering the same fate.

Import Chris McLaughlin is poised to lead the charge for Eastern, which is surely raring to get back on winning track after absorbing its second loss in the mid-season conference against NorthPort just last Friday, Dec. 20.

A win could have catapulted Eastern to the top spot but the efforts of McLaughlin, Hayden Blankley and Kobey Lam went down the drain behind the fiery showing from Batang Pier main man Arvin Tolentino and import Kadeem Jack.

Meanwhile, the Elasto Painters are hoping to get to the New Year on a four-game winning run when they clash against the Dyip, who just couldn’t get their bearings going even after six games.

ROS is heavily favored in the matchup, largely due to its run-and-gun pace and balanced attack behind young guns like Andrei Caracut, Santi Santillan, Adrian Nocum and Felix Lemetti along with import Deon Thompson.

Although winless, Terrafirma can still pose danger especially if Stanley Pringle and import Brandon Edwards both get it going on the offensive end.