It's going to be a battle of style versus strength when TNT Tropang Giga faces San Miguel Beer in the best-of-seven finals series of the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup starting tomorrow at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Tropang Giga head coach Chot Reyes and Beermen mentor Leo Austria promise an intense and dramatic finale between the flagship teams of the biggest conglomerates in the country — Manny V. Pangilinan Group and San Miguel Corporation.

While the Tropang Giga bank on Filipino-American scorer Mikey Williams and his smooth, stylish brand of basketball, the Beermen are relying on the brute strength of six-time Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo, raising speculations that this finals series will boil down to a sudden-death Game 7 with the hungrier, more prepared team emerging victorious.

Reyes knows they will be hard-pressed as they try to change their destiny since they last figured in the Commissioner's Cup finals back in 2019.

During that time, TNT was enduring a title-drought while eventual champion San Miguel was still lording it over, winning eight crowns to emerge as the most dominant team of that era.

But all of those are already things of the past.

"Very honestly, (it's) very difficult and this is just being as objective as possible. If you take a look at the lineup and how deep and how strong they are," Reyes said during the PBA Finals press conference in Novotel Manila yesterday.

"Since there are two teams battling, it's 50-50. It's one or the other so the important thing for us is to stay patient and understand how difficult this series is going to be."

"We have no illusions about it, we know how strong the other team is. We just have to be prepared."

Since the pandemic hit the PBA in 2020, their fates began to turn around with TNT reaching two straight Philippine Cup finals before capturing the 2021 title in Bacolor, Pampanga.

The well-armed crew of veterans Jayson Castro, Roger Pogoy, Troy Rosario, Poy Erram and, of course, Williams, took advantage of their championship experience and clobbered their semifinal foe in Magnolia in six games to book their seat in the finals.