Aces vs E-Painters or Beermen? Exciting PH Cup finale up ahead
Who will the Alaska Aces face in the finals of the PBA All-Filipino Cup? Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
The 2016 Smart Bro PBA Philippine Cup winds to a close with an exciting finale be it Alaska Milk versus San Miguel Beer or the Aces against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.
Either way, it would be a match made in heaven.
In easing out Final Four gatecrasher Globalport, Alaska has guaranteed a championship face-off between two major contenders.
It’s a repeat of the Philippine Cup finals last year or a new dish – a first-ever titular showdown between the Aces and the E-Painters. Either series could be considered battle of the best.
Alaska Milk team owner Wilfred Uytengsu himself is excited about any matchup, believing either of the two would be a great treat to the PBA fans.
Uytengsu refused to pick a choice of matchup for his team, uttering the saying “be careful of what you ask for.”
The amiable team owner just expressed confidence the Aces would be ready to come out and battle whichever team they face in the best-of-seven finals.
“I would love nothing more than to present rings for our next all-Filipino win,” said Uytengsu, a fixture in the games all these years since Alaska’s entry in the league in 1986.
“We want to play Rain or Shine because they don’t have the tradition and the experience of San Miguel and they’re very talented and a lot of weapons. Look at the record, it’s a 2-2 series. You wish to play San Miguel for redemption and you come out with an extremely well-coached team and they won two of the last three championships,” Uytengsu noted.
“Either way, it’s gonna be hard. To be the best, you have to beat the best. So I don’t care who we play, as long as we will win.”
If it is San Miguel, Alaska’s heartbreaking loss in the finale will come back in mind.
“Last year’s all-Filipino was such a painful loss, because we were there. We clawed ourselves back from double-digit figures in the second half in each of the game we won and in Game Seven, we clawed back from twenty-two points,” Uytengsu recalled.
“We led with less than a minute to go and let it slip in our fingers. The reminder there is we have to play 48 minutes of hard basketball each game and have to do it in each of every game we play. And I hope that we come up with four wins this time,” Uytengsu added.
The Beermen snatched the crown on a last-second shot by Arwind Santos after a bizarre sequence seeing Jvee Casio slip and crash on the floor on a breakaway fastbreak that would have sealed their triumph.
San Miguel completed a double-championship last season also with a conquest of Alaska in the Governors Cup finals.
Alaska coach Alex Compton also foresees an exciting finale.
“I don’t think necessarily that because we’re playing at a high level, you can win. If you look at the other series, both of those teams were playing at a high level. Without question, they’re capable of beating us. We’re also capable of beating them, and I think it will be a good series,” said the Alaska bench chieftain.
“Those teams pose very different problems, making it hard to scout. San Miguel and Rain or Shine are so different. You’re not gonna prepare the same way for both. So, I really think they’re both excellent teams. Either one of them are capable of beating us. San Miguel beat us twice in the finals last year. Rain or Shine has beat us in the elims this year. I do like to keep the defensive energy we had in this series,” Compton added.
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