Coach Leo Austria is glad to see San Miguel Beer start off the PBA Governors’ Cup with two consecutive victories, breaking the trend of early slumps that hounded them during their title runs in the previous two conferences.
The Grand Slam-seeking Beermen racked up two victories to open the season-ending conference, beating the Phoenix Pulse Fuel Masters and Alaska Aces by a combined margin of 37 points.
“We always struggled in every conference that came after winning a championship,” Austria said.
SMB went 2-3 in the first five games of the Philippine Cup and eventually entered the playoffs as the fifth seed. But the Beermen showed their usual championship poise to capture a fifth consecutive title in the league’s most important tournament.
A 1-3 record to begin the Commissioner’s Cup and a 2-5 record put the Beermen in danger of missing the playoffs, but the arrival of replacement import Chris McCullough set up a big turnaround and resulted in another championship.
“This time, we had a good start and maybe because of our participation in Macau,” Austria said.
San Miguel participated in the East Asia Super League Terrific 12 prior to its opening assignment in the Governors’ Cup and wound up placing fourth in the tourney composed of club teams from China, South Korea and Japan.
Dez Wells has been cited as the major reason for SMB’s success, posting an average of 33.5 points, 7.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 2.0 steals in walloping Phoenix 130-119 and Alaska 109-83.
SMB is hoping to keep its hot streak going Friday when it takes on unbeaten NLEX in Dubai.
