SAN Miguel Beer and Rain or Shine square off Friday in a match kicking off their PBA Philippine Cup best-of-seven semifinals duel at the SM Mall of Asia Arena.
Hearing it from no less than coach Yeng Guiao himself, his Elasto Painters are admittedly the underdogs, but have everything to gain in the best-of-seven match-up.
"The best team in the conference ang kalaban mo. I don't think there's any pressure on us," said Guiao. "We will just play as hard as we can, 'yun lang ang gagawin namin."
Indeed, SMB lived up to its top billing by finally disposing off upset-minded and eighth-seeded Terrafirma, 110-91, last Wednesday, about a couple of hours before No. 5 Rain or Shine completed its mastery of fourth-ranked TNT with a 110-109 squeaker that sealed their own quarterfinals duel.
Even before knowing which would be his SMB team's opponent in the Final Four, coach Jorge Gallent already has a basic idea on what to expect and that the two games it took to overcome the Dyip should serve his players in good stead.
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"They have the same style, they have bigs that can shoot the 3s," noted Gallent. "So this (quarterfinals) series really helped us."
For his part, Guiao has a clearer idea of his side's chances, basing his assessment on his team's 12-point loss to the Beermen in the eliminations and the defending champions' other games.
"Wala naman kaming pangtapat kay June Mar (Fajardo), wala kaming pangtapat kay CJ (Perez), kina Terrence (Romeo)," Guiao pointed out.
"Pero pahihirapan namin sila. Ganoon lang ang magagwa namin. Kung manalo, manalo. Kung matalo, kailangan matalo ka na nakataas ang noo mo after the game<" added Guiao.
"We want San Miguel to feel all the pressure. Wala namang pressure sa amin. Panalo na kami, champion na kami sa isip namin, eh."
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The seven-time champion coach was referring to the winners' feeling his youth-laden team had after hurdling TNT to realize the franchise's 17th semis stint but first since the 2019 Commissioner's Cup.
"Ang sabi ko sa kanila, this is gonna be our championship game," related Guiao. "Marami sa kanila hindi pa nakakatikim ng semifinals. Ako matagal na rin. So we felt that this could be a historic game for us."
SMB equaled that glorious feeling after shaking off a shock 95-106 loss to Terrafirma at the start of their duel to stay in the hunt for its 30th championship overall, a quest Guiao said would be nearly impossible to foil.
"Ang natutunan namin, mahirap talunin ang San Miguel. Hindi mo kayang i-match up ang San Miguel, kaulangan maghanap ka ng ibang paraan para talunin mo ang San Miguel," offered Guiao.
"So I think the series is for them to lose. But we will be there, we will just hang around."(NC)
