Game today:

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)

6:15 p.m. — Meralco vs San Miguel Beer

It is not over until it’s over.

Meralco goes for the jugular against defending champion San Miguel Beer in Game 6 of the best-of-seven Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup finals today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Just a win away from claiming their breakthrough championship, the Bolts are approaching the pivotal match set at 6:15 p.m. extra cautious knowing too well that the Beermen won’t just roll over and die.

“I don’t think anybody’s gonna have their guard down. Both teams are ready. You can see every game has been close. Every game has been tight,” Meralco coach Luigi Trillo said.

Meralco regained the series lead, 3-2, after outworking San Miguel Beer in another close call, 92-88, in Game 5 last Friday behind the heroics of Chris Newsome and Allein Maliksi.

The Bolts are suddenly in unfamiliar territory with the title within arm’s reach in their fifth finals appearance. Meralco now holds a virtual twice-to-beat advantage over a rival that has not won back-to-back games against it.

“We just gonna have to move forward to the next game,” Trillo added.

The last time Meralco came this close to grabbing the franchise’s first championship was in the 2017 Governors’ Cup when it forced eventual winner Barangay Ginebra San Miguel to a winner-take-all Game 7.

Hungry for glory, the Bolts are determined to wrap up the series, focus on the bigger picture and not get carried away by their emotions.

“What’s to be happy about? We’ve achieved nothing yet,” Maliksi, who finished with 22 points in Game 5, said.

“We don’t think of the future. Stay in the moment. Prepare for Sunday’s game.”

The odds are looking good for Meralco as 15 of the 19 teams that won Game 5 after a 2-2 series deadlock went on to win the title in the last 12 seasons.

Trillo hopes Maliksi and Newsome, who sank two clutch free throws in the last 6.2 seconds of Game 5 after the Beermen closed in within two, will continue to deliver to get the job done backed by Raymond Almazan, Chris Banchero, Bong Quinto, Cliff Hodges and rookie Brandon Bates.

While Meralco is unfamiliar with having the upper hand in a title series, pulling off a comeback is nothing new for the Beermen.

In the last 15 years, San Miguel still went on to win the championship in three of the four times it went down 2-3 in a PBA finals.

But first things first.

The Beermen need to survive their second do-or-die match in the playoffs since dodging an upset ax thrown at them by Terrafirma in the quarterfinals.

“We got to think about Game 6. There’s no Game 7 if we fall in Game 6. We’d take care of what we need to do in Game 6 and we’ll go from there,” San Miguel sniper Marcio Lassiter said.

Lassiter had a terrible shooting night hitting three-of-11 from the field for six points in the last outing.

He along with Don Trollano, Jericho Cruz, Terrence Romeo and Chris Ross will need to do a better job of providing help on offense for Best Player of the Conference June Mar Fajardo and CJ Perez — the only two Beermen in double figures in Game 5.

Game 7, if necessary, is on Wednesday at the same venue.