Twelfth straight win. Series sweep. First Finals in six conferences.
One more win and roaring Petron Blaze achieves all these.
The Boosters gun for this one big win, going for the kill versus the beleaguered Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in Game Three of their PBA Governors’ Cup best-of-five semifinals showdown at the Cuneta Astrodome Saturday.
Game time is 6:45 p.m. with Petron hoping to apply the broom on Rain or Shine and get a shot at reclaiming the Governors’ Cup crown that the Elasto Painters won last year.
It’s two-zero, but it doesn’t reflect how close the battle has been.
It has actually been a dogfight with the E-Painters, despite their all their limitations, in the thick of things until the final minute in Game One and in the contest up to the final second in Game Two.
This is not lost on the Boosters who vowed to just stay focused on the task at hand as they take their first of three shots at the Finals.
“We cannot be complacent. It takes three victories to win a best-of-five series and we cannot back off against a very dangerous ROS,” said Petron coach Gee Abanilla. “We will try to keep on improving and play at a high level no matter what the situation is.”
The odds are now heavily stacked against the titleholders.
For the record, in the last two decades, just one PBA team has come back from a 0-2 deficit to win a best-of-five series. Ginebra San Miguel pulled the trick versus Talk n Text in the 2009-2010 Philippine Cup quarterfinals.
In the league’s entire history, only two other teams did the feat – Crispa versus Toyota in the 1975 Third Conference Finals and Purefoods against Alaska also in the third confab in 1990. Curiously, both were under coach Baby Dalupan.
The E-Painters fell into the deep 0-2 hole Tuesday as they were unable to sustain a strong start with a depleted lineup minus Paul Lee (shoulder injury), JR Quinahan (bruised ankle) and Ryan Arana (then down with a fever).
Still, the E-Painters are not about to concede.
“We will hang in there, continue fighting and hold on for as long as we can. If we hold on long enough, we can give ourselves a crack at winning,” said Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao.
“We’re not losing hope,” Guiao stressed.
Gutsy and scrappy were the E-Painters who lost by just a basket, 90 88, Tuesday notwithstanding an awful 0-of-18 clip from beyond the arc.
“Had we got even one, we could have won the game and tied the series,” said Guiao. “Siguro naman mag-i-improve na shooting namin on Saturday.”
Guiao’s bigger concern is how to neutralize Petron’s tremendous size advantage.
Six-foot-10 rookie center Junmar Fajardo has become Petron’s man of the moment with huge double-double performances in Games One and Two.
The big question is how the E-Painters can stop Fajardo with only Beau Belga having the size to match up with the Cebuano behemoth.
With Belga picking up a fifth foul with over 13 minutes left to play, coach Guiao turned to Arizona Reid and Jervy Cruz who are both inches shorter and pounds lighter.
“JR Quinahan could have been a big help. Beau needs help,” said Guiao.
Abanilla, meanwhile, promised they would stay all business in their hope to nail a first Finals stint for the franchise in the last six conferences. (SB)
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