San Miguel Beermen gave everything they could on the ground in match 1 of the Filipino PBA Cup final against TNT.
And while the managers of the furious team at the end of this Sunday evening after the Beermen absorbed a defeat of 99-96, the coach Leo Austria was anything but angry.
Live: PBA Philippine Cup Finals Game 2 – San Miguel VS TNT
The tactic veteran was almost calm, fresh and collected despite the Bedlam that occurred at Araneta Coliseum.
For Austria, linger on the interference of the offensive basket which finally led to the loss was useless. He prefers by far to switch his hat to the Beermen, who almost withdrew from what looked like an insurmountable deficit.
However, he thinks that an incident threw the hard work from all his team.
“We took a bad start, we were able to run and take the lead, but all of a sudden, this incident occurred,” said an Austria disappointed to The Inquirer. “This is out of our control. The efforts of the players have been wasted.”
San Miguel was down to 24 points in the opening of the series before embarking on a fourth quarter which had the Beermen about to steal match 1.
San Miguel held an advance of 98-97 in the last 6.2 seconds only for this controversial dunk MO TAUTUAA with 56 seconds to be canceled after being considered as an offensive basket interference.
And with this, match 2 will be played on Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum, the Beermen seeking to avoid being buried in a 0-2 hole against a team as talented as Tropang 5G.
San Miguel doesn’t really need to look far to see where everything went wrong.
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The furious – or anemic effort of San Miguel – in the first parts of the game which made Tropang 5G took this spread of 24 points was obviously one of the keys to the result of match 1.
There is also the great return to the action of RR Pogoy, which scored 23 points which included crucial baskets, for TNT.
And Austria thinks it can indicate why.
“We realized that, perhaps, after our series (semi-final) with (Barangay) Ginebra (who knew seven games), many of our players were tired and relaxed because of this victory,” he said. “But we know that so that we can compete with TNT, we have to give our game a game.”
This game came only in the fourth, when the defense of San Miguel held TNT only 14 points.
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This series has a lot of weight for the two franchises, with the Tropang 5G shooting to finish only the sixth Grand Slam in the history of the League and San Miguel seeking to recover an old throne which he had occupied with impunity for more than the last decade.
TNT can only hope to find the same grainy stand as a few nights, while Austria hopes that its crew will take place from the start to avoid withdrawn again. Inq
