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SERVICES
THE INQUIRER COMPANY
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04
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25
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2024
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SERVICES
THE INQUIRER COMPANY
04
25
2024
Coach Leo Austria knows there was more than a little luck involved in his San Miguel Beer team’s initial win against Rain or Shine in their PBA Governors Cup semifinals duel.
Austria and his Beermen intend to leave little to chance when they gun for a 2-0 lead over the Elasto Painters in the best-of-five match up Saturday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“Talagang sinuwerte rin kami. Mantakin mo, from 24 points down nanalo pa?” gushed Austria following his team’s 101-95 victory in the series opener last Thursday, when SMB came fighting back from such a huge deficit.
“I guess you could say we’re just lucky na hindi sila kumonekta sa three points when we shifted to the zone (defense) and at the same time nag-click naman ang mga players namin,” added the man bidding to steer his Beermen to a second crown this season after their Philippine Cup title romp.
“Pero hindi p’wedeng palaging ganu’n. I’m sure they’ll do some adjustments and we’ve got to be prepared to make our own.”
In the league’s 40-year history, teams which took a 2-0 lead in a best-of-five went on to win the series, including all but one of 32 squads since 1993.
That is one very deep hole Rain or Shine is trying to avoid and coach Yeng Guiao knows exactly the areas his team needs to improve on to equalize and shift momentum on their side.
“We need to play a lot smarter the next time and put in a better effort, defensively,” said Guiao after emerging from their dugout last Thursday.
“There were too many defensive breakdowns. So I felt that in a close match against the good teams (like San Miguel) you cannot afford to have too much defensive breakdowns,” added Guiao.
Despite the stinging loss, Guiao also sees some positives for his team. “Tingin ko naman, offensively it’s just a matter of us making two or three more three-point shots,” he pointed out.
“Sinona kami, we got our good looks with the three-point shots. The problem was… mga three-point shooters namin were not able to make those 3s. We got the good looks, (but) not our usual percentage. If we had made two, three more we would have been able to slow them down and stop their momentum.”
Indeed, Rain or Shine went just 11-of-45 from behind the arc, including 2-of-9 in the payoff period. In contrast, SMB made nine of 30 three-point tries, including 1-of-5 in the fourth quarter.
That lone triple by Alex Cabagnot made it a 95-93 count.
Posting leads of 43-19 and 45-21 over a talent-laden team like SMB was also a pleasant surprise, according to Guiao.
“We did not think we could lead them by 20-plus points and they had to shift to a zone just to catch up. So next time we will be better prepared. We are extremely confident with our matchup offense, kapag mina-match up nila kami. We will be more prepared kapag sinona nila kami next time.”
A more balanced offense should also help both teams.
In Game One, SMB’s starters combined for all but nine of the team’s points with Arizona Reid and Marcio Lassiter finishing with 22 points apiece.
Wendell McKines wound up with game highs of 33 points and 16 rebounds, but the flagrant foul-1 slapped on him late in the third quarter and the slight right ankle sprain Beau Belga suffered late in the second period which lessened his effectiveness for most of the second half did not help the E-Painters any. (NC)
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