San Miguel on cusp of ‘Beeracle’
San Miguel Beer is no stranger to pulling off miraculous comebacks from a series deficit.
In fact, the Beermen hold the distinction as the only team in Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) history to recover from a deep 0-3 hole in a best-of-seven series, in a feat popularly known as the “Beeracle” comeback from a decade ago.
The league’s winningest franchise is again on the cusp of another epic reversal.
It erased a 0-2 best-of-five quarterfinals series deficit against Barangay Ginebra and forcing a do-or-die in the PBA Season 50 Governors’ Cup on Tuesday at the Ynares Center-Antipolo.
However, even with momentum — and history — on their side, San Miguel head coach Leo Austria downplayed the ‘Beeracle’ angle and would rather focus on just getting the job done.
“We will not exaggerate the situation. We just have to play our game. We just want to focus on what we’re doing,” Austria said.
Back in the 2016 Philippine Cup, San Miguel also had its back against the wall after three games before winning the last four matches to steal the series from Alaska and complete a feat never before accomplished in Asia’s first play-for-pay league.
The Beermen equalized in Game 4, coming back from 17 points down with a massive 46-point third-quarter burst for a come-from-behind, 108-102, victory last Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
San Miguel turned the tables around after dropping the first two games.
In the equalizer, the Beermen limited the Kings to just 18 points in the third quarter. They also made life difficult for RJ Abarrientos as the Ginebra guard went 2-of-13 from the field for just seven points and without a single assist.
“One of the game plans is to limit Abarrientos, which I think materialized. He scored only seven points,” Austria said.
Stephen Holt had it worse with San Miguel’s stingy defense.
“Holt is usually averaging in double figures but now he only got three points. And Jeremiah Gray, only six points. I think our defense said a lot in this game,” the 11-time champion coach added.
George King, ageless Chris Ross, CJ Perez and Don Trollano shouldered much of the scoring as center June Mar Fajardo struggled to find his form on offense.
“And when it comes to offense, our team is very talented. But if we play as a team, I think we will be having good results,” Austria said.
The winner of the rubbermatch takes on defending champion TNT in the best-of-five semifinals starting 4 December.
Converge and NLEX clash in the other Final Four pairing.