Winning the grand slam is really our target right now

DEZ Wells and San Miguel start their journey to a PBA grand slam.

San Miguel Beer starts its journey to a grand slam when it opens its Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup campaign against Phoenix Pulse today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Game time is 6:45 p.m. with the Beermen tipped to come out strong to win the title that would formally cement them as one of the only five teams that captured all three titles in a season.

Two Crispa squads were the first to complete the rare feat in 1976 and 1983 followed by the Beermen squad of Norman Black in 1989.

Then, Tim Cone achieved it twice; first was with Alaska in 1996 and second was with San Mig Coffee in 2014.

Cone is now with Barangay Ginebra and had been appointed by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas as head coach of Gilas Pilipinas in the 30th Southeast Asian Games.

Shortly after winning the Commissioner’s Cup title, San Miguel head coach Leo Austria admitted that winning the grand slam is their motivation entering the season-ending conference.

“Winning the grand slam is really our target right now. We will really try to win another championship in the PBA Governors’ Cup so we can join other elite teams who have already won the grand slam.”

Austria admitted that they were not thinking about the grand slam entering the season, but when they ruled the All-Filipino Conference and the Commissioner’s Cup, everybody was suddenly rooting for them and the dream of achieving it started to take shape.

“There is no reason for us not to aspire it. This is what a lot of people want for us, especially the San Miguel Beer fans. This is what the management wants from us. This is a big honor if ever we achieve it,” said Austria, who was a shooting guard for Formula Shell when the Beermen achieved the feat in 1989.

“As I’ve always say, this is not easy for us. I keep on telling the players that it requires a lot of hard work to win another championship. They know it and they are ready for the challenge.”

And to make sure that the road to the grand slam will be hassle-free, the Beermen tapped an explosive scorer in Dez Wells and joined an elite tournament, the East Asia Super League Terrific 12 in Macau, where they wound up with a semifinal finish.

The Beermen will clash with the Fuel Masters, who are looking to bounce back from a sorry 123-116 setback to NLEX in their previous game.

Phoenix coach Louie Alas said facing the Beermen in their debut is quite challenging, but they will do everything they can to frustrate them and throw their bid for a grand slam off the track.

“If we compete against them in a shootout, we would be in trouble. We need to bring in our A game defensively. We need to be very consistent,” said Alas, wary on the scoring ability of Wells and the local crew of Arwind Santos, Alex Cabagnot, Chris Ross and Christian Standhardinger.

“Wells is an explosive scorer like Tony Harris. He plays defense very well, too,” Alas said.

“He’s a two-way player so we need to bring out our best against San Miguel.”

Meanwhile, two teams who also saw action in the Terrific 12 in TNT KaTropa and Blackwater would also make their debuts in the first game at 4:30 p.m.

The KaTropa will be parading another gifted scorer in former NBA player KJ McDaniels while the Elite rest their hopes on Marqus Blakely, who is already in his fifth tour of duty after seeing action for B-Meg in 2012, San Mig Coffee in 2015, Star Hotshots in 2016 and TNT in 2018.