Aces, Beermen begin PBA PH Cup title series

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Ahead of the Smart Bro PBA Philippine Cup Finals, the good news for everybody is that San Miguel Beer main man Junmar Fajardo escaped a major injury in his fall Friday night.

But with a swollen left knee, Fajardo is doubtful starter in Game One or in the next.

Nevertheless, San Miguel Beer and Alaska Milk are both talent-laden teams tipped to engage in another title series to remember, starting their best-of-seven all-Filipino title rematch at 5 p.m. Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Their 2015 title showdown boiled down to the dying seconds of a deciding Game Seven with the Beermen barely escaping with an 80-78 win on a final-second shot by Arwind Santos.

San Miguel later made it a twinkill over Alaska in also winning their Governors Cup championship showdown.

The Aces, however, look ready for redemption especially with some edge at the start of the series – the team being fresher, more prepared plus Fajardo’s injury.

“Last year’s two finals series have been done for a long time, and San Miguel deserved both championships. This is a new series and a chance for us to try and dethrone them,” said Alaska coach Alex Compton.

“Until someone beats San Miguel, they will be the champions. We are hoping we can be the team to do that. We have to outwork them in this series if we want to have a chance. For sure they will come out with guns ablaze with a lot of energy. Hopefully we can sustain our effort from this entire conference and rely on our defense to take us where we want to go,” he added.

The Aces made the finals well ahead of the Beermen on a dominant four-games-to-one win over the Globalport Batang Pier in the semis series.

And through the elims, the Aces have lost only three games, fashioning out a 103-97 win over the Beermen last Dec. 16.

“My concern is their pressing defense and their running attack. We have to assert our game, deliberate basketball. Yun ang panglaban namin,” said San Miguel coach Leo Austria.

“In the absence of Junmar, hindi magbabago ang game plan namin since meron pa naman kaming Yancy de Ocampo at Gabby Espinas. Secondly, hindi rin talaga kami makakagawa ng ibang game plan with no time to make that preparation,” Austria also said.

The Beermen just entered the finals Friday in the game where Fajardo went down with a left knee injury following a bump from Rain or Shine forward Jireh Ibanes.

“Mabuti na lang walang major injury. Pero kailangan pa naming intayin ang recovery niya,” said Austria.

No doubt, the Beermen will have big shoes to fill in on Fajardo’s absence. The reigning back-to-back MVP holder averages 26 points, 14.8 rebounds, 2.1 blocks and 1.6 assists.

San Miguel’s next leading scorers are Arwind Santos (15.1 ppg), Alex Cabagnot (13.6 ppg) and Marcio Lassiter (12.0 ppg).

The Aces sport a lot more balanced numbers with Vic Manuel (14.6) as the leading scorer then there are seven guys (Calvin Abueva, Chris Banchero, Joachim Thoss, Jvee Casio, Cyrus Baguio, RJ Jazul and Dondon Hontiverso) putting in norms ranging from 7.06 to 13.3.

Alaska has added ceiling from last year with Thoss now having key backups in Eric Menk, Noy Baclao and Sam Eman.

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