It’s all hands on deck for San Miguel Beer when it begins its title defense against a formidable and hungry Meralco in the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup finals starting Wednesday.

Head coach Jorge Gallent expects every man on his deep bench to do his part to help the cause in the best-of-seven series firing off at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

San Miguel Beer was first to reach the biggest stage of the tournament after a clean sweep of Rain or Shine in the semifinals for its 15th all-Filipino conference championship appearance and 45th overall title stint.

Stacked with stars led by the troika of seven-time Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez and Marcio Lassiter, the Beermen have been dominating the competition in their quest their 10th all-local crown and 30th overall championship.

But the biggest factor in the grandslam-seeking franchise’s success is the contribution of its bench.

It leads the league in bench points, averaging 51.0 points per game, about half of the 107.41 average scoring output of San Miguel.

Gallent, with his three-layer deep arsenal, has the luxury of tweaking his rotation with scorers Don Trollano, Jericho Cruz and Terrence Romeo putting up the numbers off the bench.

But the mentor wants other seldom-used players to step up against one of the only two opponents that handed San Miguel a loss in the season-ending conference.

He specifically sees the importance of Jeron Teng and guard Simon Enciso’s role in the series.

Teng, in particular, provided the spark off the bench in the Beermen’s come-from-behind 107-100 win over the Elasto Painters in Game 4 of the semis two weeks ago.

But the biggest factor in the grandslam-seeking franchise’s success is the contribution of its bench.

“I always talk to Jeron and tell him, ‘You know Jeron just stay ready.’ And also Simon to always stay ready,” Gallent said.

“Because going back to the last conference when we played Ginebra. He was really a big factor in there, coming off the bench. Although he was seldom used, once we use him, he’s gonna give his heart’s out.”

Teng is averaging 3.2 points, 0.9 rebounds and 0.6 assists per outing.

Meralco drew first blood in their initial meeting in the conference, denying San Miguel a rare elimination round sweep with a 95-92 win in Batangas City last 4 May.

The only other time the Beermen absorbed a loss in the contest was in the quarterfinals when they were forced by No. 8 seed and twice-to-win disadvantaged Terrafirma to a do-or-die game.