FREEDOM DAY BATTLE

Game today:

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)

7:30 p.m. — Meralco vs San Miguel Beer

It’s an all too familiar scenario: Meralco up, 2-1, in a best-of-seven series entering Game 4 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) finals.

The first two times did not pan out how the Bolts wanted it.

Meralco hopes the third time’s the charm when it marches back to battle on Independence Day following a two-day break to face defending champion San Miguel Beer in a pivotal match in the Philippine Cup title series today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Bolts are going all-out to get into a good position in their quest for a breakthrough crown when action commences at 7:30 p.m.

Meralco shattered the series deadlock last Sunday with a thrilling 93-89 victory in Game 3 that saw Chris Newsome play the hero’s role with a go-ahead trey and a pair of insurance charities with under 35 seconds left.

But Bolts coach Luigi Trillo knows that a second win is no reason to celebrate.

“We have to keep them grounded,” Trillo said.

“We know this team, they’re very capable of coming back. We know they’ve been down but to us we can’t celebrate. We know that. Can we play better? Yes.”

Meralco has been in the same situation before only to absorb heartbreaks at the hands of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel in the 2016 and 2021 Governors’ Cup finals.

Holdovers of the Bolts squads from those championship series are determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

‘We have to keep them grounded.’

“We’ve definitely been here before, but the result did not pan out the way we wanted it to. But for those guys who were with us during that 2-1 leads and we had those lapses, those were the guys who were actually the most vocal in the locker room,” said Newsome, who poured 20 of his 26 points in the second half including nine in the fourth quarter of Game 3.

“Those are the guys that have been through it. We’ve had our heartbreaks and we’re passing our knowledge now and the things that we felt that we could’ve done better during our 2-1 leads, to capitalize on the situation and turn it into a 3-1 lead.”

Newsome, however, sees a tougher challenge trying to score another victory over a team that only lost four times in the season-ending all-Filipino conference.

“This is the series where you’re going up against San Miguel — the best team of the decade. They are playoffs-ready. They’ve been through a lot of series. It’s gonna be tough to go up 3-1 against them. They’re gonna be hungry,” he said.

Meralco is also leaning on Raymond Almazan, who had a double-double in the last outing after a scoreless Game 2, Bong Quinto, Chris Banchero and Cliff Hodge to get the job done.

On the other hand, San Miguel will surely take advantage of the break to plot a counteroffensive to level the series and give big man June Mar Fajardo enough time to rest.

The nine-time Best Player of the Conference Fajardo, who is expected to collect another one in the awarding rites before tipoff, has been playing extended minutes.

“Game 4 will be crucial. We need to have high energy to keep up with them,” Beermen guard CJ Perez said.

Perez will try to make up for his fourth quarter free throw woes in Game 3 where he bricked five of San Miguel’s six missed charities.

Veterans Chris Ross, Marcio Lassiter, Don Trollano and Jericho Cruz need to step to help Fajardo and Perez while Mo Tautuaa, who scored 19 last game, and Jeron Teng have to be consistent in their contributions off the bench for the Beermen.

Terrence Romeo has not seen action for San Miguel after suffering a calf injury in the semifinals.