Meralco head coach Luigi Trillo is giving much of the credit for the Bolts' breakthrough Philippine Cup Finals to the coaching wits of active consultant Nenad Vucinic.

It was no secret that while it was Trillo who was at the helm and calling the shots for the Bolts in the sidelines, it was Vucinic’s system and principles that were being employed by Meralco in its offensive and defensive schemes.

And that has been the key to Meralco’s recent success over Ginebra which it finally defeated in a best-of-seven series for the first time after losing their first four matchups. 

“I just want to give credit where credit's due. I'm sure the players always get the recognition here but the guy in charge of our basketball program is coach Nenad,” said Trillo after a convincing 78-69 win over the Kings in the Game 7 of their semifinals series at the FPJ Arena in San Jose, Batangas.

“I see coach Tim on the other side, he's been a national coach, coach Nenad also been a national coach but he's in charge of our team, he's the captain of our ship and he did a lot of things in this series to bring out the best out of the guys,” he added.

With Vucinic’s guidance, Meralco actually took a 2-1 series lead after Game 3 but lost two straight to fall behind 2-3. The Bolts, however, powered through with a stellar Game 6 win to force the decider where Vucinic’s wards put up a defensive masterclass to stifle their bitter rivals.

“He gave a lot of coaching. I thought they guys were poised, and like you said, we beat them back-to-back now. So that's something to be proud about,” Trillo said about Serbian-Kiwi coach.

It’s now starting to look like Vucinic was exactly the doctor that the Bolts ordered to finally get their long coveted first PBA title especially with how Meralco had dominated SMC-owned teams this conference.

Meralco was undefeated against SMC teams in the elimination and was even the one which put an end to San Miguel’s 10-game winning run and bid for an elimination sweep. Incidentally, the only one that stands between the Bolts and their first PBA title are the Beermen.

With that, the Bolts are confident they have the tools and knowledge to topple the June Mar Fajardo-led defending champions.

“Coach Nenad has done a great job of instilling certain things with us. He's been a year with us so we’re gonna go back to the drawing board. We're gonna come prepared,” assured Trillo.

“We believe in these guys. I think we use a lot of players, it's not like we only use six or seven. San Miguel we have a lot of respect for them but we can match up with them,” he added.