Valentine’s day title for San Miguel Beer? Or a fight after Valentine’s Day to decide what will happen to the Beermen and the Magnolia Hotshots?
The Beermen will try to end the war against the struggling Hotshots in Game 6 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals on Wednesday, riding high on their 108–98 win on Sunday.
There are many reasons for San Miguel to want to win the fight on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The main reason is that they don’t want it to be a winner-takes-all, where anyone could win.
They also want to give June Mar Fajardo and CJ Perez some time to rest before they join Gilas Pilipinas in their preparations for the FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers in February. In those games, they played Hong Kong away and Chinese Taipei at home at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.
It would give coach Jorge Gallent more time to get ready for his first game with the Manila Southwoods adults team in the PAL Interclub in Cagayan de Oro and Bukidnon. Galent is a terrible player.
But, of course, ending a game is always hard, and the Beermen have to deal with the stubborn Magnolia team.
The Hotshots say they’re not giving up even though the score is 2-3.
“Positive pa rin kami na makabalik kami,” Magnolia guard Mark Barroca said, drawing on the team’s victory after being down 2-0 in the series.
“I feel good. We came down from 0-2 (to tie it). We could do it again. We could win two more games, why not?” said import Tyler Bey.
“We’re a great team. I don’t feel like our backs are against the wall. We’re down one and they got one more game to go. But I believe in this team, I believe in the coaching staff and I believe in myself as well so (I’m) pretty confident,” Bey added.
Both of them have been strong-willed and honest, and they have played in different ways.
In Games One (103-95), Two (109-85), and Five (108-98), San Miguel won thanks to its deadly shooting. In Games Three (88-80) and Four (96-85), Magnolia won thanks to its strong defense.
Jericho Cruz made a big difference in the last game with eight three-pointers that helped him score 30 points.
“We can’t just let guys go off for 30. We got to respect everybody on their team,” said Bey.
“Cruz got off eight treys. He had a great game; he did what he had to do. For us, I felt like we just didn’t adjust quickly enough. We took him lightly and that’s our problem. We didn’t respect him enough and we paid for it.”
The Hotshots want to get even again.
But the Beermen are ready to beat the Hotshots so they can have a rare Valentine’s Day title party.
