Top seed Petron Blaze is getting there in a hurry. San Mig Coffee and Meralco are taking a little bit longer.
Forty-eight hours after the Boosters posted a 2-0 lead over defending champion Rain or Shine in their best-of-5 semifinals in the PBA Governors’ Cup, the Mixers, seeded second in the playoffs, and the Bolts, ranked fourth, clash in Game 3 Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, with both looking to gain a critical 2-1 lead in their series.
Petron can advance to the Finals via a sweep with a victory Saturday although the Elasto Painters, as severely crippled as they are right now, can never be counted out.
For San Mig and Meralco, however, the road to perdition lies straight ahead to a Game 5.
That would happen if they again split the next two games to set up a do-or-die. But Game 3 is all that matters right now.
The Mixers took Game 1 last Sunday, 83-73, as Joe Devance had an offensive resurgence, pouring 17 points on red-hot shooting from 3-point range.
“We gave so much attention to James [Yap], PJ [Simon] and Marc [Pingris] that we forgot to give us much respect to the others; that’s my mistake,” said Bolts coach Ryan Gregorio after the game.
Devance made them pay, hitting 7 of 10 from the field that night as Yap went 6 of 17, Simon 3 of 6, and Pingris 8 points. Marqus Blakely backed Devance up with 15 points and 10 rebounds and starter Alex Mallari came to the rescue as well with 3 of 4 triples.
Defensively, the Mixers clamped down on the Bolts, who missed 51 of their 80 shots, 20 from beyond the arc.
Tim Cone, the San Mig coach, said the emotionally-draining and the physical quarterfinal playoffs against Alaska, has left them nearly spent. But they’re sucking it in.
“We just kinda hung on [tonight] till we got something going,” Cone said. “We had some momentum in the third quarter and carried it over to the fourth. This will be a series of attrition.”
Given 24 hours to correct their lapses and energize their campaign, the Bolts responded efficiently.
Not only did they shut down Devance (0 of 5 in 38 minutes) and Pingris (0 of 4 in 15), they also put Yap on a 3-point diet (1 of 6 triples) while serving four local players in double figures behind Mario West’s 17 points.
The 73-69 fightback Tuesday saw Meralco surviving another dreadful shooting evening (26 of 85) through sheer hard work under the offensive boards were the Mixers were mauled, 20-9.
That advantage, coupled with San Mig’s 22 turnovers (6 by Blakely), combined to give the Bolts 30 more shots to negate their woeful touch and neutralize the 16 more free throws awarded the Mixers, whose total output was a team conference low.
“They came out flat and that gave us a great opportunity to fight through,” said Gregorio. “Holding them to 69 speaks of our desire to assert ourselves defensively. But it’s gonna be harder from hereon.”
Cone believes the 24-hour break should benefit both teams.
“It will give us a chance to recharge our batteries, physically and mentally,” he said. Then referring to the Mixers, Cone added: “Hopefully, we can get back on track.”
More than anybody else, the derailed Devance is who San Mig has to get back on the rail fast. With the Bolts zeroing in on Blakely, Yap and Simon, the Mixers need a spot-up shooter to loosen up the paint for Pingris and Yancy de Ocampo to operate in with lesser degree of harassment.
Having rekindled their defensive fire, the Bolts will be difficult to snuff out though unless the Mixers can rain down tons of offense to douse the flames. (WJRHT)
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