FOR Marcio Lassiter, it was like a breath of fresh air seeing former members of San Miguel’s so-called ‘Death Five’ personally watching and supporting the team in its PBA Philippine Cup semifinals series against Barangay Ginebra.
Former MVP Arwind Santos and Alex Cabagnot were at ringside of the Smart Araneta Coliseum to see their former teammates battle the Gin Kings in Game 3 of their best-of-seven duel Sunday night.
Lassiter appreciated the presence of the two despite the Beermen going down in defeat, 100-90, to now trail in the series, 2-1.
READ: Abarrientos' near-triple double sparks Ginebra win over SMB in Game 3
“It was almost like a ‘Death Five’ reunion. It’s always great to see them there, good times. Happy that they came and support us,” said the Fil-Am gunner.
Santos and Cabagnot were two-thirds of SMB's legendary starting unit that also included Lassiter, Chris Ross, and eight-time MVP June Mar Fajardo.
Behind the quintet, San Miguel won eight championships, including five straight Philippine Cup titles from 2015-2019.
Both Santos and Cabagnot are now with the Basilan Viva Portmasters in the MPBL.
Lassiter said he got surprised seeing the two ex-Beermen at the Big Dome.
“They didn’t tell us,” said the 38-year-old Lassiter, who got to talk a bit to Cabagnot and Santos in their brief encounter during the game.
“Their presence is always great. It’s great to see them here.”
San Miguel must keep in step with Ginebra
But even with Santos and Cabagnot cheering on SMB, the top-seeded team failed to get past Ginebra, which went on transition mode to fasten the tempo of the game, as Fajardo has been known to be nursing a calf injury.
READ: June Mar Fajardo reveals injured calf actually has slight tear
“They’ve been pushing the game more, so they got a lot of fastbreaks. When I was on the bench (in the third quarter) I saw Jamie [Malonzo] scoring back-to-back layups. It wasn’t easy layups, it was contested, but knocking them in transition kind of opened it (game) up,” said Lassiter.
The Gin Kings outscored the Beermen in fastbreak points, 15-8.
“From missed shots to big shots, they were always running,” said Lassiter.
RJ Abarrientos then took over in the fourth quarter, scoring 18 of his game-high 24 points, as Ginebra regained the series lead after being at the wrong end of a 17-point blowout in Game 2.
“Tough loss. We’ve got to do a lot of adjustments,” Lassiter said after ending up with five points on 2-of-8 shooting from the field, including 1-of-5 from the three-point region.
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