DEFENDING champion San Miguel Beer and TNT should have learned their lessons the last time out.
Whether the Beermen and the Tropang Giga will take those lessons to heart will be known today when they square off anew with equally determined foes in a pair of knockout quarterfinal duels in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.
Top seed SMB takes on No. 8 Terrafirma in the curtain-raiser at 4:30 p.m., four days after the Dyip stunned the Beermen 106-95 that negated the latter’s twice-to-beat advantage in the Last Eight.
No. 4 TNT collides with fifth-ranked Rain or Shine at 7:30.
Dyip coach Johnedel Cardel said his troops are bracing for an expected big fightback from SMB.
“Tingin ko preparado naman kami, pero siyempre kailangan talagang ready kami dahil San Miguel iyan,” Cardel said. “Pero ang sabi ko nga, nagawa na natin na talunin sila so kailangan lang higitan pa ang effort na ginawa namin sa Game 1.
“Who knows? Baka maka-silat ulit,” he added.
How Terrafirma will stifle reigning seven-time MVP June Mar Fajardo and how they will adjust to the Beermen’s own tweaking should be crucial.
“Ni-review naming iyong depensa laban sa kanila. Inuna namin depensa, sa mga shooters.
Kasi siyempre iyong (June Mar) Fajardo hindi namin mapipigilan iyon,” Cardel said.
“Gumawa ng 21 points iyong Fajardo pero nakuha namin in na-shut down namin mga shooters nila. So, same thing.
“Pero this time, dapat handa kami sa ide-depensa nila sa amin. Iyong switching nila kay Isaac (Go), iyong depensa nila kay Juami (Tiongson) at (Stephen) Holt. So, iyon ang paghahandaan namin.”
The likes of Tiongson, Holt, Go, and Javi Gomez de Liaño will be counted upon by the Terrafirma in its bid to forge a best-of-7 semis showdown with the winner of the Tropang Giga-Elasto Painters game.
Aside from Fajardo, SMB will count on CJ Perez, Terrence Romeo, Jericho Cruz, Marcio Lassiter, Don Trollano, and Mo Tautuaa.
TNT seemingly had the race-to-2 series in the bag after it whipped Rain or Shine 116-99 in the opener of their quarterfinals battle.
But the Painters simply refused to lie down and die in the second tiff and scored a 121-113 to stay alive in the season-ending tourney.
“In that game, we showed our maturity and perhaps we were lucky, too, as they missed certain players,” Rain or Shine tactician Yeng Guiao said, referring to the ejection of Tropang Giga big man Jewel Ponferrada and the injury of Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser. “There was a small window, and it was on to go through it. We just took advantage of the situation.”
Ganuelas-Rosser was later ruled out of Game 3 due to an ACL injury.
TNT will pin its hopes on Calvin Oftana, Roger Pogoy, Jayson Castro, and Kelly Williams.
Jhonard Clarito, Andrei Caracut, Leonard Santillan, Adrian Nocum, and Beau Belga will be relied upon by the Painters to deliver.
