HOLDING a 2-1 lead and a chance to push its mighty foe on the brink, Meralco coach Luigi Trillo is looking to star playmaker Chris Newsome to deliver anew as the Bolts try to close in on what initially seemed improbable.
But the Bolts needed another player — make that more — to avert being stunned anew by defending champion San Miguel Beer.
“Led by our captain here, there’s no celebration. I’m sure he’s going to talk to the guys, our coaching staff,” Trillo said, referring to Newsome. “We’ll get them grounded. We know this team, they’re very capable of coming back.
“We know they’ve been down. To us, we can’t celebrate, we know that,” he added.
Whether the Bolts can grab a commanding lead will be known when they clash with the Beermen tonight in Game 4 of their battle for the PBA Philippine Cup crown at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Game time is 7:35 p.m. after the pro league awards the Best Player of the Conference plum.
Meralco carved out a nail-biting 93-89 decision in the third tiff of the race-to-4 Big Dance last Sunday night.
The Bolts have been in a similar situation before, taking a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven finals against the Ginebra Kings but found themselves falling short in the end.
Newsome is hoping he and his teammates have learned their lessons.
“We’ve definitely been here before, but the result didn’t pan out the way we wanted to,” Newsome said. “For those guys that were with us during those times we had 2-1 leads, and we had that lapse, those are the guys that are actually the most vocal in our locker room today.”
Aside from Newsome, the likes of Cliff Hodge, Chris Banchero, Bong Quinto, Allein Maliksi, Raymond Almazan, and Brandon Bates are expected to banner Meralco’s charge.
Beermen veteran shooter Marcio Lassiter said the charges of tactician Jorge Gallent are keeping their heads high after the sorry setback the last time out.
“Obviously, it’s a tough loss like Game 2 was a tough loss for them (Bolts). It’s going to be a long series, but we got our heads up. We could’ve won that game too with breaks of the game,” Lassiter said.
“We didn’t capitalize on a few things, obviously rebounding and some late-game shots but all in all, we know we could do better.”
SMB will pin its hopes on forging a 2-2 tie on reigning seven-time MVP and BPC pacesetter June Mar Fajardo, Lassiter, CJ Perez, Don Trollano, Mo Tautuaa, and Jericho Cruz.
Newsome and his fellow battle-scarred Bolts — Almazan, Maliksi, Hodge, and Banchero have to show the way.
“It’s going to be on the veterans in our locker room to come out and be vocal about it. But when it’s all said and done, it’s not about what you say, it’s about what you do,” he said.
“We can say we can come out and have all this energy and do this and that.
