SAN Miguel coach Jorge Gallent said the quarterfinal scare from Terrafirma will benefit the Beermen in their quest for the PBA Philippine Cup crown.
The Beermen experienced little adversity during most of the elimination round until they lost to Meralco last May 4 in Batangas City which prevented them from completing an 11-game sweep of the regular season.
Wake-up call
San Miguel suffered another defeat to open the quarterfinals at the hands of No. 8 Terrafirma last Saturday, 106-95, at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum but recovered last Wednesday with a 110-91 victory at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium to enter the semifinals.
The Beermen now face Rain or Shine, which beat TNT in their own quarterfinal series.
Game One of their best-of-seven duel is scheduled on Friday at the SM Mall of Asia Arena. It will be SMB and RoS' first semifinal clash since the 2019 Commissioner’s Cup where the Beermen won the series, 3-1.
Gallent said the Terrafirma series served as a wake-up call for his team and good preparation for the next round.
“We had to grind to get this win. The score is nothing because it was really a tight match until the middle of the third [quarter]and the start of the fourth. It’s a very good grind for us,” said Gallent.
Gallent said Rain or Shine and even TNT play a similar brand of game as Terrafirma, especially their bigs who can stretch the floor much like the Dyip's Isaac Go.
In the Elasto Painters’ case, they have the likes of Beau Belga and Keith Datu, who have the green light to take a three-point shot or two as part of the system of head coach Yeng Guiao.
“They have the same style. They have bigs that can shoot the three. This series really helped us,” said Gallent.
Energy on defense
With Rain or Shine’s ability on offense, Gallent said defense will be of primary importance. The San Miguel coach said their effort on defense was lacking in their losses to Meralco and Terrafirma this conference, and they can’t afford to do so against a team like Rain or Shine.
“Just pick up the energy and play good defense. When we played against Meralco and the first time we played against Terrafirma, we were kind of sluggish. But now, we watched a lot of films and we saw our sluggishness in those last two games,” said Gallent.
“(In the knockout game against Terrafirma) it was the games that we won from one to 10 that made us win,” said Gallent.
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