SAN MIGUEL Beer and TNT are back to zero, so to speak, but the intensity remains fever-pitch as the Beermen try to ride the momentum of their victory in Game 2 and the Tropang Giga hope to summon the drive they displayed in stealing the series opener on Friday.
Game 3 of the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup Finals moves to the Mall of Asia Arena starting at 5:45 p.m., a change of venue and environment for the league’s top two teams with fabled history.
“We just have to maintain our killer instinct and aggression,” San Miguel Beer head coach Leo Austria said. “We just can’t relax against a team like TNT.”
The Beermen faced a Chot Reyes-less TNT side last Wednesday and won, 109-100, to level the best-of-seven series.
They lost Game 1, 84-86, on veteran Jayson Castro’s crunch-time conversion, a lesson that the Beermen marked to the letter two nights later.
“We’re really glad to tie the series because it’s hard to go down 0-2 in any series,” Austria said.
With Reyes coaching Gilas Pilipinas against Lebanon in Beirut at the Fiba 2023 World Cup Qualifiers, it would again be up to his assistants—Sandy Arespacochaga and Yuri Escueta and team manager Jojo Lastimosa—to determine how to topple the Beermen who’re out to regain the crown being held by the Tropang Giga.
“I’ll be ready for Game 3 and I’ll figure out how to play better,” said Mikey Williams, who struggled with seven points on 1 of 7 shooting from beyond the arc in Game 2.
Roger Pogoy brought his A game on Wednesday night but after scoring 28 points in first three quarters, he went dud in the final period.
That allowed swingman CJ Perez, No. 2 in the Best Player of the Conference race, to frolic and finish with 23 points, 14 of them he made in the third quarter, and Vic Manuel having a career scoring night for the first time in a Beerman uniform with 20 points.