SMB eyes 3-0 semis lead vs ROS; Ginebra, Meralco to break tie


At a glance

  • Jorge Gallent wants San Miguel to keep on its toes and not take Rain or Shine for granted even if it is now gunning for a commanding 3-0 lead when the PBA brings the Game 3 of their best-of-seven semifinals action at the Dasmarinas City Arena in Cavite on Wednesday, May 22.


Jorge Gallent wants San Miguel to keep on its toes and not take Rain or Shine for granted even if it is now gunning for a commanding 3-0 lead when the PBA brings the Game 3 of their best-of-seven semifinals action at the Dasmarinas City Arena in Cavite on Wednesday, May 22.

 

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With the Beermen looking exactly like the team that once 10-0 in the eliminations, Gallent warned his charges to not be complacent ahead of the 4:30 p.m clash with the Elasto Painters.

Following suit the interesting showdown is an equally thrilling showdown between Barangay Ginebra and Meralco as they break a 1-1 series deadlock in their own semis affair.

“Two wins are nothing. We have to get four. There’s nothing to celebrate about unless we get the win number 4. But this is our third step, first is the eliminations, second one was the quarterfinals. This is the third step and it’s not over yet,” said the one-time mentor.

Momentum certainly is on the side of the Beermen especially after another dominant showing from June Mar Fajardo during the 106-89 romp of the Elasto Painters in Game 2.

The seven-time MVP is emerging as the biggest difference in the first two games, literally and figuratively, as ROS continues to struggle to put a body to the 6-foot-10 Cebuano behemoth.

Through the two games, Fajardo proved that he can simply dominate the paint at will – evident in his third quarter explosions when he started asserting his size and heft inside – but is only making an effort to involve his teammates, particularly his three-point shooters.

Rain or Shine, for its part, isn’t entirely playing bad in the series, also having some spurts of brilliance behind young guns Adrian Nocum, Anton Asistio and Gian Mamuyac but will need more consistency from the rest of the crew to keep themselves within striking distance and hopefully steal the win in the end.

Meanwhile, in the second game, Kings head coach Tim Cone is looking to make the necessary adjustments to their offense after the Bolts defense executed a plot that dared to make Christian Standhardinger to beat them from inside the paint.

The 34-year-old big man was up to the task though finishing with career-high 41 points but was not enough as Meralco focused on shutting down all of his supporting cast in the 103-91 win.

Guys like Scottie Thompson, Ralph Cu and Japeth Aguilar need to be more involved on the offensive end if the Kings wish to regain the series lead.

Expected to anchor another tough defensive stand for the Bolts is Cliff Hodge alongside other Meralco enforcers Raymond Almazan, Brandon Bates, Kyle Pascual and Norbert Torres.

Chris Newsome, Allein Maliksi and even Bong Quinto, on the other hand, hope to carry the offensive cudgels for the Luigi Trillo-mentored squad.