By REYNALD MAGALLON
Defending champion San Miguel Beer launches its bid for another opportunity to build a dynasty when it tangles against a struggling Rain or Shine in the 2024 Philippine Cup on Friday, March 15, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum
With the end goal of winning back-to-back all-Filipino Cup crowns in sight, a resounding win in their first game would only be fitting for the Beermen as they hope to fire warning shots to the rest of the league in the 4:30 p.m. affair against the winless Elasto Painters.
The contest will be immediately followed by an equally interesting collision between bitter rivals Barangay Ginebra and Meralco in the nightcap at 7:30 p.m.
It once lorded over the Philippine Cup with an unprecedented feat of five straight seasons from 2014 to 2019, SMB is hoping to have at least a pinch of that dominance with head coach Jorge Gallent’s ‘Death 15’ branded crew that also ruled the 2023-’24 Commissioner’s Cup.
Talent is certainly not lacking for the Beermen, with June Mar Fajardo, seven-time Most Valuable Player, expected to lead the charge anew.
CJ Perez has also elevated his game a notch higher for SMB as he also hopes to sustain an impressive season so far that saw him win the Best Player of the Conference and Finals MVP plums last conference.
Other than the two, Rain or Shine has tons of players to worry about with guys like Marcio Lassiter, Jericho Cruz, Terrence Romeo, Jeron Teng and Chris Ross all primed to give head coach Yeng Guiao all kinds of headaches during the game.
And those are only problems the fiery mentor needs to solve outside of the Elasto Painters’ circle as they also struggle to find the perfect formula within themselves to finally barge into the win column after three tough losses.
Experience is what is obviously lacking for Rain or Shine so far as the team just couldn’t pull off the much-needed plays down the stretch to close out the game. In fact, the Elasto Painters have been competitive in all of their three defeats, only losing by an average margin of 3.7 points.
Guiao, should be leaning on his young guns in Santi Santillan, Andrei Caracut, Anton Asistio and even rookie Adrian Nocum to provide the contributions to match SMB’s vaunted firepower.
After all, ROS, as what it did last conference when it made the playoffs from a 0-5 start, showed that it has the capability to live up to its potential. The thing about this conference, however, is that the Elasto Painters need to start winning a little earlier than the last tournament.
