June Mar Fajardo–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net
June Mar Fajardo found himself in a bind on Sunday night, his on-court struggles among the many things that doomed San Miguel in Game 3 of the PBA Philippine Cup’s championship series.
“That’s just the best way it’s,” he told reporters in Filipino on the heels of a 93-89 loss to the Meralco Bolts at Smart Araneta Coliseum. “Credit to them, they’ve played great throughout this series.”
Easily the center and soul of the vaunted club, Fajardo was shackled to only 12 points and was limited to his season-low five field-goal attempts.
The reigning MVP, who’s on pace to win his tenth Best Player of the Conference award, also accounted for seven of the team’s 15 turnovers because the Beermen slid to a 2-1 hole.
“Their defense is great. They’ve got loads of bigs, and so they are quick with their rotations so it’s been tiring [for me],” Fajardo said of the opposition, who has the likes of Raymond Almazan, rookie Brandon Bates, Norbert Torres and even Kyle Pascual taking turns in defending probably the most dominant player within the league.
CJ Perez, the opposite regular presence for San Miguel on this All-Filipino derby, wasn’t too keen on pinning all of it on his star teammate’s woes.
“It’s just the free throws,” he said in a separate chat. “Those were probably the most crucial. We missed seven within the last [minutes], and that was the story.”
Five of those muffed freebies, following a 75-all deadlock within the payoff frame, were from Perez. And people were just as critical in San Miguel’s defeat, the spitfire guard insists.
A better examination of the Game 3 stats sheet, nevertheless, showed that San Miguel lost in each the rebounds and assists race. The Beermen only had 50 boards against the Bolts’ 57, and 15 assists versus Meralco’s 22.
‘Improve our energy’
Fajardo, Perez, and co. were also behind the challengers in points within the paint (36-32), second-chance points (22-11), and error conversions (20-13).
“We really want to enhance our energy to beat Meralco. We’re losing in rebounds—offensive rebounds. And their hustle [plays],” said Perez.
The crafty guard, nevertheless, is confident that those issues might be addressed within the two-day lull heading into Wednesday’s Game 4 at the identical venue.“It’s going to be crucial as we don’t need to be crushed (with an enormous deficit),” he said of the return match.
“The 2 days will likely be big for our rest. And naturally, June Mar since he’s really having a tough time. He needs rest. And naturally, we want to regulate whatever that’s we want to regulate,” Perez added.
If anything, Perez and Fajardo can take comfort within the proven fact that San Miguel has yet to lose back-to-back games this tournament. The Beermen suffered that just once this season after they stumbled against NorthPort after which Magnolia within the previous Commissioner’s Cup which they eventually ruled.
It can be truly interesting to see how the decorated San Miguel side recoups against a Meralco crew hell-bent on making probably the most out of their first-ever Philippine Cup finals. INQ
