The San Miguel Beermen is scheduled for a head-to-head game against the Blackwater Elite at 4:15 P.M. on May 31, 2017 in Cuneta Astrodome.
The Beermen is aiming to finish the 2017 PBA Commissioner’s Cup at least as the top three teams while the Elite will take on yet another spoiler team role in this concluding second conference.
A limited minutes for June Mar Fajardo due to fever? No problem as the Beermen’s deep roster took over the slack left by the Kraken.
Charles Rhodes, Marcio Lassiter, Alex Cabagnot and Chris Ross rallied and performed a well balanced scoring for the San Miguel to topple the struggling Alaska Aces last Saturday.
San Miguel currently sits at the third spot of the standings and the twice-to-beat advantage moving to the quarterfinals is still within reach.
That’s actually the goal of coach Leo Austria squad.
“We still have our destiny in our hands at wala kaming ibang tina-target sa ngayon kundi iyung top two,”said Austria. “Hindi naman masama iyung malagay ka sa best-of-three pero as of now wins in our last two games ang goal namin.”
Without its prized rookie Mac Belo and Arthur dela Cruz, Blackwater only managed to get a couple of wins this second conference.
Last 2017 PBA Philippine Cup, they fought for the last playoff spot against Rain or Shine but unfortunately wasn’t able to get the slot.
The Elite was able to give Barangay Ginebra a scare during the third quarter when two teams last met. Blackwater is now out of contention but still can take the role of a spoiler team just like what NLEX did for Alaska and Phoenix.
“Nothing to lose sila, kaya the pressure is actually on us,” explained Austria. “So kapag pinag-combine nila iyung dalawang factors na iyon baka lalo silang ma-inspire para maging spoilers.”