SAN Miguel moved closer to a finals return in the PBA Philippine Cup by repeating over Barangay Ginebra, 103-92, taking the upper hand for the first time in their best-of-seven semis affair.
The Game 5 win marked the first time a team took back-to-back wins in the series and put the Beermen on the cusp of reaching the championship of the All-Filipino conference for the second straight season.
READ: San Miguel expecting 'NSD' from Ginebra in tough closeout Game 6
In the other semis pairing, Rain or Shine lived to fight another day after hacking out a 113-97 win over a TNT side that played minus suspended head coach Chot Reyes.
The Tropang 5G though, still leads their own series, 3-2.
Game 6 is set on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, with both the top seeded Beermen and the grand slam-seeking Tropang 5G eyeing to arrange a title duel for the league’s so-called crown jewel.
READ: Josh Reyes says TNT has no excuses in Game 5 loss to RoS
The Kings and Elasto Painters, though are looking to extend their respective series and forge a do-or-die game.
Read on some of the takeaways in Friday night’s action at the Big Dome.
1.JERICHO CRUZ RE-EMERGES FOR SAN MIGUEL
It’s been quite a while since the tough guard broke out offensively for the Beermen, and it couldn’t have come at a better time just as the team was looking to gain advantage against the no. 4 seeded Kings.
Cruz finished with a season-high 27 points built on 9-of-12 shooting including a combined 4-of-5 from both the rainbow and four-point line, respectively.
He also added a pair of assists and accounted for four of the 11 total steals by San Miguel.
His total output more than doubled his average in the semis at 11.5 points prior to the Game 5 explosion.
2.RJ ABARRIENTOS SHACKLED
The Ginebra rookie was obviously missed on offense as San Miguel’s defense clamped down on him, holding him to an 0-of-4 stint from the floor. He finished with six points in 24 minutes of play, making all of them from the foul line.
He had four rebounds and four assists, but committed three turnovers. The no. 3 overall draft pick was just two games removed from exploding for 24 points – including 18 in the fourth quarter – in a 100-90 Ginebra win in Game 3. Abarrientos averaged 10.5 points in the first four games of the series.
3.REDEMPTION COMES FOR GIAN MAMUYAC
Exactly a week after costing Rain or Shine a win in Game 2, the guard out of Ateneo finally compensated for his late-game blunder by showing the way for the Elasto Painters with a team-high 22 points.
Mamuyac got in the groove early on by scoring 16 points in the first quarter alone, accounting for more than half of the team’s total output after taking a 28-24 lead at the end of the 12 minutes of play.
He had three assists and three steals, went 8-of-13 from the field goal and 6-of-7 from the foul line.
His total output was his second best in the playoffs behind the 25 which he also scored against TNT during Game 3 of last year’s Philippine Cup quarterfinals.
4.HOW LONG TNT CAN ENDURE ALL THE INJURIES?
Already without shooting guard RR Pogoy, the Tropang 5G had another injury casualty in veteran forward Kelly Williams, who is out with a sprained ankle.
Both Pogoy and Williams are part of TNT’s starting unit.
Pogoy has not seen action since Game 3 and has been averaging 19.5 points on a 50 percent field goal shooting, while Williams sat out the series for the first time after contributing 4.2 points and 7.2 rebounds in the four games that he played.
Curiously, two other starters for the team in Jordan Heading and Calvin Oftana are also playing through injuries. Heading has yet to fully recover from his back spasm, while Oftana continues to suit up despite spraining both his ankles in Game 4.
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