MANILA, Philippines — San Miguel Beer tests the mettle of NLEX, now led by new coach Jimmy Alapag in a battle between two hottest squads in the PBA Season 50 Governors’ Cup on Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.
Both squads are at joint first place in Group A, and will try to grab solo lead in their 5:15 p.m. match.
The main game slated at 7:30 p.m. features Barangay Ginebra and Rain or Shine.
The Beermen are coming off a 126-122 win against the Converge FiberXers. The game saw import George King erupt for 41 points, as he, along with CJ Perez led SMB’s blazing second half offensive to hand Converge its first defeat after a 3-0 start.
Top SMB big man June Mar Fajardo said he’s the least surprised to see the Road Warriors thrive this early under the 48-year-old Alapag. “We’ve been together for many years and it wasn’t a surprise for me to see him become a PBA coach,” Fajardo said in Filipino.
The two first got to play together in 2013 with Gilas Pilipinas, where the national squad placed second behind champion Iran in the then FIBA Asia men’s championship in Manila.
The runner-up finish allowed the Philippines to punch a ticket to the FIBA World Cup in Seville, Spain for 2014, marking the country’s return to the world stage for the first time since 1978.
Fajardo and Alapag eventually worked together at SMB in the PBA from 2019-2020 when the latter became part of the Beermen’s coaching staff.
Alapag had certainly grown leaps and bounds in his coaching career, having served as player development coach for the Sacramento Kings for three years in the National Basketball Association before returning home to call the shots for NLEX.
Meanwhile, the Gin Kings hope to follow up on their 115-85 lynching of the Blackwater Bossing when they take on the Elasto Painters.
Sunday’s match will be their first meeting since Ginebra beat ROS in six games in their Commissioner’s Cup semifinal series.
Riley Grigsby, Ginebra’s stand-in import, will be leading the team, along with RJ Abarrientos, Japeth Aguilar anf Stephen Holt.
The 26-year-old Grigsby is taking the spot of Justin Brownlee since the four-time PBA Best Import continues to recover from multiple injuries.
