SAN Miguel Beer and TNT shoot for a commanding 3-1 lead in their respective PBA Season 50 Philippine Cup semifinal series as action shifts on Sunday at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
The Beermen captured their second straight win in the series following their 91-85 victory last Friday against the Barangay Ginebra Kings.
SMB will be shooting for a third straight victory when it faces Ginebra again at 5:15 p.m.
The charges of coach Leo Austria dropped the series-opening game, 99-90 last week.
The 7:30 p.m. will then feature TNT looking to bounce back from its 97-89 defeat in Game 3 when it battles a resurgent Meralco side.
San Miguel’s star center June Mar Fajardo had a quiet Game 3, scoring just six points on 1-of-8 shooting.
But the leading Best Player of the Conference candidate still managed to remain bullish at the rebounding department after recording 19 boards.
Still, Fajardo’s struggles on offense was well covered by wingman Don Trollano, who delivered a scorching shooting display of 15 points in the third canto on the way to finishing with a game-high 33 and leading the Beermen to the victory.
“Before the series, we were expecting him (Trollano) to play really well and help the team,” said Austria after the game. “But the big factor is not only Don’s 33 points, but the bench, they scored 56 points, 21 more than the starters. Mo Tautuaa, when June Mar sits on the bench, he performed well. and everybody's supporting each other.”
SMB is sure not lacking in firepower since Austria still has CJ Perez at his disposal, along with Jericho Cruz, Juami Tiongson, and Game 2 hero Jeron Teng.
The Gin Kings though remain a dangerous bunch.
Scottie Thompson, sophomore guard RJ Abarrientos, Japeth Aguilar, Troy Rosario and Stephen Holt will have to elevate their play in order to prevent Ginebra from falling to a 1-3 hole.
As for Meralco, the team is keeping its finger crossed that wingman Chris Newsome’s knee injury is nothing serious.
The concurrent Gilas gunner and defender suffered the injury during the waning minutes of the Bolts’ Game 3 victory.
Still, Meralco is known for not backing down. And the Bolts have Chris Banchero, Cliff Hodge, Aaron Black and vastly improved CJ Cansino at the forefront.