SAN MIGUEL Beer (SMB) has got to do it today or else, it’d be living dangerously for the Beermen on Friday.
Rain or Shine (ROS) has proven, time and again, that it can rise from the grave and, thus, is very much capable of sending the best-of-five Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup semifinal series to a deciding Game Five.
It should have been over for SMB following the Beermen’s bland-free 114-108 victory over Rain or Shine on Monday had Painter Wendell McKines not been allowed to transform Game Two into his own matinee show.
In that grotesque game, SMB blew a 20-point, third-quarter margin, all because McKines was virtually left to fire at will in the last bend.
As a result, the massively built McKines finished with a season-high 53 points, feasting on lane-slashing skills like a serial killer.
In one stretch of that McKines last-quarter storm, he drove home 16 straight points in a 21-5 ROS run that tied the count at 110-all.
Not content with unloading bombs, McKines, with mere ticks remaining, sneaked in from behind and swiped a Marcio Lassiter pass for AZ Reid.
He would next flick a surgically precise fast-break assist to Jeff Chan, whose three from the right quarter court hit nothing but net for the final 113-110 ROS victory and the 1-1 deadlock.
But if he was as blood-thirsty as the Boston strangler in Game Two’s fourth quarter, not so in Monday’s Game Three.
McKines could only come up with six inconsequential points in that game’s last 12 minutes as Reid, insisting before play began that it was only him who could collar the ROS import, starved the scoring machine to “only” 39 points—14 points fewer than his 53 on Saturday.
But while Reid splendidly shackled McKines, the pony-tailed SMB import, likewise, sparkled in shooting, spiking his 37 team-high points with seven triples.
So inspired was Reid’s performance that it rubbed off on his teammates, especially Alex Cabagnot.
Virtually silent for quite a time now, Cabagnot played loudest on Monday, banging home SMB’s first three treys in an 11-point blast of his own for the Beermen’s early 15-10 margin.
That practically set the tone for SMB’s almost unimpeded march to victory, capturing an 89-82 third-quarter lead from 56-54 at halftime.
After Gabe Norwood hit back-to-back threes to push ROS to within 99-100, Reid unleashed his seventh and last triple of the night for a 103-99 SMB lead.
And when ROS got to within one again, 101-103, on McKines’s charities off Ronald Tubid, Reid drove, Cabagnot tripled and then Reid raced through traffic again for a 110-101 Beermen lead, 2:12 remaining.
After a swap of putbacks by Painter Jireh Ibañez and June Mar Fajardo, Paul Lee’s fourth triple of the game was the Painters’ last gasp at life.
When Lassiter, whose three treys in the third quarter helped erect an 11-point 73-62 SMB margin, answered with a jumper to secure a 114-106 advantage at the 51-second mark, ROS was doomed.
But even as momentum had swayed back to SMB and Beermen Coach Leo Austria knows the immense importance of this, nobody’s dismissing ROS this early, given that Painter Coach Yeng Guiao is a fabled trick artist.
However, Guiao’s surprise move to start TY Tang in Game Three had backfired somewhat as Tang became a clear mismatch both in height and skill against Cabagnot early on.
Tang was the reason Cabagnot had exploded with 11 straight points, finishing with 13 points or half of SMB’s 26 first-quarter points.
And so, will SMB’s 2-1 lead result to a 3-1 victory tonight for another Finals appearance after the Beermen had recently won the All-Filipino crown?
The answer could come in one of the 31 triples scored in Game Three, 18 by the Beermen.
THAT’S IT. How many PBA commissioners has Willy Marcial worked with as media officer? Three—Noli Eala, Sonny Barrios and Chito Salud. Thus, when Chito Narvasa takes over as PBA commissioner after the current season, he is lucky to have a Willy Marcial under his command. That is, if Willy’s not retiring? Big loss for the PBA if Willy calls it a day….Happy birthday to TV/film director Ayapot, the beloved Nanay of Mayasoh and Ikap and wife of Ricky Sadiwa. Greetings coming from pamangkins Mayo, Dada and Migel, Kuya Dayong and Nanaysoh. Cheers!