SAN Miguel coach Jorge Gallent is no longer looking back to its loss to Meralco heading to the PBA 48th Season Philippine Cup Finals between the two teams.
The Beermen enter the finals with a huge advantage, finishing first in the eliminations and losing just twice the entire conference. However, one of those losses came at the hands of the Bolts, their finals opponent for the first time ever.
Meralco beat San Miguel, 95-92, last May 4 at the Batangas City Coliseum, but Gallent sees a different ballgame when the two teams face off again, this time with the Philippine Cup championship on the line.
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“Their backs were on the wall because if they lost that game, they wouldn’t, I think, make the playoff. They really played hard and we also really played hard to try to get the sweep but it didn’t happen,” Gallent said.
“It’s just the past. It’s done,” said Gallent during Monday’s pre-finals press conference at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Quezon City. “We’ve learned from our mistakes in that game and we just have to be better with it.”
Since that loss, San Miguel has lost only once and even became an early finalist after sweeping Rain or Shine in the semifinals.
But while San Miguel has practically dominated the competition, Gallent expressed concern over the lengthy break, 12 days to be exact, before Game One after waiting for the other semifinal series which ended only last Friday with Meralco beating Ginebra in Game Seven in San Jose, Batangas.
San Miguel swept Rain or Shine, 107-100, last May 24, and will play Game One against Meralco on Wednesday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
“It was kinda hard because we didn’t know who to prepare for until Game Seven,” said Gallent of the extended break. “After Game Seven, we watched a lot of film of what Meralco does good. We were off… but we couldn’t prepare because we just didn’t know who to play against. We just prepared right after they (Meralco) won on Friday. We had three to four days to prepare against them.”
“We are kinda okay kasi 11 days na ‘yun. We did a lot of scrimmages and a lot of talking to what to do in case Ginebra or if Meralco wins. We were kinda okay in this 11-day break,” said Gallent.
“But I’m just scared that we just might be rusty. But we will see on Wednesday,” he added.
Being this close to a championship though is enough reason for San Miguel to not only shake off the rust as quickly as possible but to re-focus on the ultimate goal as the team sees a formidable and worthy foe in the finals in Meralco.
“Our main motto with this team is we just do it step-by-step. This is our fourth step. For us, this is gonna be the most important thing. This fourth step. We will be very happy if we get the 30th franchise win of San Miguel. We are just gonna try. We are going to play hard. We are going to have fun and compete,” said Gallent.
“I know we are playing a team that is full of energy, that likes to play defense, it is well-coached. We just have to match their energy to get a chance to win that 30th championship,” said Gallent.
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