AVERTING DISASTER

Games today:

(City of Dasmariñas Arena)

5:15 p.m. -- Rain or Shine vs Converge

7:30 p.m. -- Ginebra vs San Miguel Beer

Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone has seen too many shockers happen in his nearly four decades of coaching career in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) to get comfortable with a commanding series lead.

After two games in Season 50 Governors’ Cup best-of-five quarterfinals series against San Miguel Beer, the Kings are already one win away from advancing to the semifinals.

Ginebra has knocked down the Beermen twice and has pushed them against the ropes.

But it doesn’t mean San Miguel won’t punch back when cornered.

Cone is particularly wary of the Beermen being capable of flipping the script if given an inch.

So, he expects the Kings to go all-out and play like their lives depend on it in the pivotal Game 3 today at the City of Dasmariñas Arena in Cavite.

Ginebra returns to the court at 7:30 p.m. to finish off the Beermen and set up a best-of-five semis showdown against defending champion TNT, which swept its series against Magnolia.

“Two games don’t make a series,” Cone said following the Kings’ 126-99 domination of San Miguel in Game 2 last Friday.

“As we all know, we’ve heard this many times before; I can’t even tell you how many series I’ve been in now in the PBA. I would have no idea. But it’s been a lot, and I’ve seen a lot of things happen. Teams come back. Teams get on a roll. Teams get going forward,” the 26-time PBA champion tactician said.

Ginebra, the last team to book a quarters berth, has been playing sharp since the final stretch of the group stage.

Import Jordan Murphy fits perfectly under Cone’s system and has created great chemistry with locals RJ Abarrientos, Scottie Thompson and Stephen Holt.

Big men Japeth Aguilar and Isaac Go are holding their own against San Miguel behemoth June Mar Fajardo while the Kings’ unselfish basketball and gang rebounding make life miserable for the Beermen.

However, Cone doesn’t want his team to dwell on past results as the job is far from over.

“It’s just going to continue on us to not relax, not let our guard down and keep coming out with the same intensity game to game that we’ve been doing,” he said.

Meanwhile, Fajardo remains defiant amid the danger of an early exit.

“The series is not yet over. They still have to beat us one more time,” said Fajardo, who came up with 16 points and nine rebounds in Game 2 after a three-point outing in the Beermen’s 95-104 series-opening loss.

Although the odds are against San Miguel Beer, pulling off another “Beeracle” is not entirely remote.

The Beermen are the only team in the league’s half-century history to have ever come back from a 0-3 deficit to win a series, achieving the feat during the 2016 Philippine Cup finals against Alaska.

“Nothing is impossible. We just have to stay positive. One game at a time,” said Fajardo, who helped the franchise achieve that historic feat.

In the curtain-raiser at 5:15 p.m., Rain or Shine and Converge duke it out to get the advantage in their series.

The two teams split their showdown with the Elasto Painters taking Game 1 in a come-from-behind fashion, 124-120, before the FiberXers equalized, 130-125, last Friday.