OLD FOES COLLIDE
San Miguel, Magnolia rekindle rivalry, start title showdown
An age-old rivalry that made and broke a lot of careers and featured a lot of defining moments will finally be dusted when Magnolia battles San Miguel Beer in a best-of-seven finals showdown of the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup starting today at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Game 1 fires off at 7:30 p.m. with both the Hotshots and the Beermen tipped to march with fire in their eyes not only to pull off an early lead but also to gain a psychological advantage in this duel that sparked as early as 1988 when the Purefoods franchise formally acquired the Tanduay.
Bannered by young guns like Jojo Lastimosa and Jerry Codiñera, Purefoods coasted all the way to the 1988 Open Conference finals only to bow to the old guard — San Miguel — in an emotional seven-game series.
Since then, their head-to-head battle was pretty much one-sided in favor of the Beermen, who beat the Purefoods franchise six times in eight encounters. The last time they met was in the Philippine Cup finals in 2019 with San Miguel emerging victorious in a tough seven-game affair.
With that, expect tension to rise when these two proud franchises clash anew, especially after taking different, yet equally challenging, routes to the finals. While the Beermen flirted with disaster before sweeping sister team Barangay Ginebra in their best-of-five semifinal series, the Hotshots needed four games to get rid of the gritty Phoenix Super LPG side to punch the last ticket to the championship round.
Still, the Beermen are downright scary.
In fact, they have not lost a game since changing import with Bennie Boatwright averaging 35.6 points, including a 42-percent shooting from beyond the arc, while pulling down 12 rebounds and dishing out 3.4 assists per game.
All in all, the Beermen had won eight in a row, seven of them with Boatwright at the attack zone.
“The coaches and the players, in particular Chris Ross, they helped me figure out ways on how to get me in motion, to keep me moving out on the floor. They made my job easy,” said Boatwright, who is thrilled to face Magnolia import Tyler Bey.
“He was playing for Colorado, I was playing for USC (University of Southern California), so I look forward to reliving that match up.”
Bey is excited for the challenge as well.
“I’m looking forward for the whole final series,” Bey, the Best Import frontrunner, said.
“We just have to take it game by game.”
From the way things are going, it looks like San Miguel has no plans to slow down even to the point that its ailing players are ready to endure pain.
Ross has been playing with an injured arm, which was made more obvious when he fired an air ball at the free throw line after drawing a hard foul from Mav Ahanmisi in their semifinal series against the Kings.
Ross said he has no choice but to play through pain, knowing the magnitude of this series.
Meanwhile, for Magnolia, the series is a chance to finally end its six-year drought.
Hotshots mentor Chito Victolero also said he is excited to challenge San Miguel tactician Jorge Gallent in a coaching battle since it will be their first time to see each other at the opposite ends of the court.
“He was my Kuya (big brother) and former teammate during our amateur days,” said Victolero, who played with Gallent for Stag coached by current San Miguel Corporation sports director Alfrancis Chua.
“We’re friends, but we’re competitors as well.”