Can San Miguel Beer put Barangay Ginebra on the ropes?
It certainly hopes to do so as it looks to close in on yet another crack at a championship when it goes for a 3-1 lead against the Gin Kings in their best-of-seven titular clash in the 2018 Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup.
“‹Now holding a 2-1 edge, San Miguel Beer can move to within a game away from the title as it looks to score another one against a jarred Ginebra in Game 4 at 7 p.m. today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Following back-to-back blowout wins, the Beermen can now go for the hat-trick as they are in a good position to put themselves on the verge of their second straight championship.
Though San Miguel Beer coach Leo Austria was surprised of the way his Beermen muscled their way to the series lead, he hopes his team can sustain it as they inch closer to a possible seventh title in the last four seasons.
“I’m not expecting this (win two games by a blowout) to happen at all, but we played really well in the last two games,” said Austria. “I hope we can sustain what we’ve been doing.”
The Beermen annihilated the Gin Kings for the second game in a row, handing a severe beating that actually tied a finals’ record.
San Miguel blew Ginebra out of the building again in Game 3, 132-94, Wednesday night and tied the biggest winning margin in PBA Finals history at 38 points.
Chris Ross led the way for the Beermen, shooting the lights out with 23 points after knocking down seven critical triples.
Meanwhile, the individual awards for the conference will also be handed out prior to the start of Game 4.
Perennial contender June Mar Fajardo is once again the front-runner to receive the Best Player of the Conference award as he is favored against Stanley Pringle or GlobalPort and Vic Manuel of Alaska.
For the Best Import of the Conference, it is a tight race between pals turned foes Justin Brownlee of Barangay Ginebra and Renaldo Balkman of San Miguel Beer.
Coming in, Brownlee has the slight edge in terms of statistical points.
Both reinforcements are gunning for their first Best Import plum.