“We’re sister teams but we’re not friendly to each other.

Intensity and emotions ran high before San Miguel Beer could pull off a 134-109 victory over Ginebra in Game 2 of their Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup best-of-seven finals showdown late Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

With the match already in the bag for the Beermen midway through the fourth quarter, tension broke out when Arwind Santos appeared to have deliberately lowered his shoulder to hit Scottie Thompson.

Kevin Ferrer rushed to Thompson’s defense, but the referees were quick to douse cold water on the simmering tension.

Santos was thrown out of the match with a flagrant foul penalty 2, sparking the large pro-Ginebra gallery to shower him with jeers on his way to the locker room.

Seconds later, Chris Ross and Joe Devance got entangled following a rebound play under the Ginebra basket.

Import Renaldo Balkman and LA Tenorio acted as peacemakers, but not after a couple of shoves and elbows were thrown between Ross and Devance – two Filipino-American stars known for their passion for winning.

These incidents didn’t come as a surprise.

Ginebra coach Tim Cone admitted that despite being cut from the same cloth, bad blood is still boiling between both teams as they are dead serious to punctuate their respective campaigns with a shiny golden crown.

Cone, who faced the Kings in a lot of battles as mentor of the great Alaska squad in mid-90s, said playing Ginebra in the finals is always an emotional and physical battle.

“It was funny. We’re sister teams but we’re not friendly to each other,” said Cone after the Beermen equalized the series, 1-1.

The family feud is quite understandable.

The Beermen have yet to lose in a finals series under head coach Leo Austria and won six titles in the past 10 conferences.

The Kings, meanwhile, is an emerging super power and a victory over the Beermen in this finals series would not only knock the crown off their heads, but could also serve as building blocks for their championship dynasty.

“Honestly, we’re not friendly with them at all. We see them as the mountain to be conquered and they see us as the threats to their throne,” Cone said, admitting that their relationship with their sister team has always been hostile.

“There’s no love between the two teams.”

Cone expects the rest of the series to be rough as his wards will be out for vengeance after a 25-point humiliation in Game 2.

“We got one blowout and they got one blowout. We’ll see what happens next.”

“It certainly got chippy and I think you’re gonna see that throughout the whole series.”

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