PBA: No team has clear edge in both semifinals series
The last time San Miguel Beer and Barangay Ginebra met in the PBA, Marcio Lassiter (right) had himself one helluva night. —AUGUST DELA CRUZ
The teams left jockeying for the PBA Governors’ Cup title have been trimmed down to the final four, and no one seems to have an advantage over anybody, which makes these two best-of-seven semifinal derbies the most interesting in a long while.
San Miguel and Barangay Ginebra tangle in the curtain raiser, while Rain or Shine takes on defending champion TNT in the nightcap of a doubleheader set on Wednesday at PhilSports Arena in Pasig City, and though no one ever said that a series can be won in the first game, dictating the pace carries a lot of importance.
After being put through the gauntlet by Converge, the Beermen are hoping to be an entirely different squad when they battle the in-form Gin Kings in the 5 p.m. contest that marks the start of yet another sister act that, in the past, more often than not go down the proverbial wire.
“Those are things of the past,” head coach Jorge Gallent said of his charges’ two contrasting outings against the crowd darlings during the group phase where the Beermen narrowly lost the first time as the Kings needed Justin Brownlee’s 51 points to triumph.
The Beermen made sure they left nothing to chance in the return match, crushing their fancied sister team by a whopping 49 points on the same night San Miguel’s Marcio Lassiter broke the all-time three-points record.
