San Miguel, NLEX gun for redemption

Games today:

(Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr.

International Convention Center)

6 p.m. — San Miguel Beer vs NLEX

San Miguel Beer and NLEX flew to Cagayan de Oro City extra motivated.

After suffering tough losses that blemished their once pristine slates, the protagonists seek to rediscover their winning ways in a marquee showdown in Group B of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup today at the Aquilino Q. Pimentel Jr. International Convention Center.

Game time is set at 6 p.m.

The Beermen and Road Warriors absorbed contrasting defeats in their previous outings that halted their two-game streaks.

San Miguel fought Barangay Ginebra San Miguel tooth and nail for most of the match only to falter in the waning minutes to suffer a 102-108 loss last Tuesday.

Defensively, the Beermen had a hard time containing the Kings’ resident import Justin Brownlee, who dropped a career-best 51 points.

San Miguel must address this defensive lapse as NLEX has a pair of streaky scorers in import Myke Henry and Philippine Cup scoring leader Robert Bolick.

Both will again be the focal point of the Road Warriors on offense to bounce back from a devastating meltdown in a 105-124 loss to Group B leader Rain or Shine last Wednesday.

NLEX’s first setback in the season-opening conference was a bitter pill to swallow as it led by a seemingly insurmountable 21-point margin in the second quarter.

But the Elasto Painters reversed it and turned it into a rout with Henry scoring only five points in the second half after putting up 16 in the first two quarters.

Henry heads into an interesting matchup against Jordan Adams, who sizzled for 50 points in a win against Phoenix only to be held down to 23 by Ginebra.

Backing Henry and Bolick are Richie Rodger, rookie Jonnel Policarpio and bruiser Michael Miranda against Adams and the star-studded Beermen crew led by eight-time Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, Terrence Romeo and Jeron Teng.

Don Trollano and Jericho Cruz are also raring to rebound from a poor performance the last time out after contributing only four points each for San Miguel.