ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider SMB opens bid for back-to-back PH Cup crown vs winless ROS

SMB opens bid for back-to-back PH Cup crown vs winless ROS

Published Mar 15, 2024 04:07 am

At A Glance

  • Defending champion San Miguel Beer opens its bid of establishing another dynasty in the 2024 Philippine Cup when it tangles against a struggling Rain or Shine at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Friday, March 15.
  •  

Defending champion San Miguel Beer opens its bid of establishing another dynasty in the 2024 Philippine Cup when it tangles against a struggling Rain or Shine at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Friday, March 15.

PBA Images8 (49).jpg
CJ Perez is expected to lead SMB anew in their match against Rain or Shine. (PBA Images)


With the end goal of winning back-to-back all-Filipino Cup crowns in sight, a resounding win in its first game would only be fitting for the Beermen as they hope to fire warning to the rest of the league in the 4:30 p.m. affair against the winless Elasto Painters.

The contest will be immediately followed by an equally interesting collision between bitter rivals Barangay Ginebra and Meralco in the nightcap at 7:30 p.m.

Untouchable in the Philippine Cup with an unprecedented feat of five straight seasons from 2014 to 2019, SMB is hoping to have at least a pinch of that dominance with head coach Jorge Gallent’s ‘Death 15’ branded crew that also ruled the 2023-’24 Commissioner’s Cup.

Talent is certainly not lacking for the Beermen, with June Mar Fajardo, seven-time Most Valuable Player and pillar of both of its old, dominant form in the 2010s and its current resurgence, expected to lead the charge anew.

CJ Perez has also elevated his game a notch higher for SMB as he also hopes to sustain an impressive season so far that saw him win the Best Player of the Conference and Finals MVP plums last conference.

Other than the two, Rain or Shine has tons of players to worry about with guys like Marcio Lassiter, Jericho Cruz, Terrence Romeo, Jeron Teng and Chris Ross all primed to give head coach Yeng Guiao all kinds of headaches during the game.

And those are only problems the fiery mentor needs to solve outside of the Elasto Painters’ circle as they also struggle to find the perfect formula within themselves to finally barge into the win column after three tough losses.

Experience is what is obviously lacking for Rain or Shine so far as the team just couldn’t pull off the much-needed plays down the stretch to close out the game. In fact, the Elasto Painters have been competitive in all of their three defeats, only losing by an average margin of 3.7 points.

Guiao, should be leaning on his young guns in Santi Santillan, Andrei Caracut, Anton Asistio and even rookie Adrian Nocum to provide the contributions to match SMB’s vaunted firepower. 

After all, ROS, as what it did last conference when it made the playoffs from a 0-5 start, showed that it has the capability to live up to its potential. The thing about this conference, however, is that the Elasto Painters need to start winning a little earlier than the last tournament.

Related Tags

San Miguel Beermen CJ Perez Rain or Shine Elasto Painters
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.