Struggling Beermen return to action today

DEFENDING champion San Miguel Beer,

face Phoenix in the resumption of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 43 Commissioner’s Cup at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Beermen will face the Fuel Masters at 7 p.m. while Northern Luzon Expressway (NLEX) battles winless Blackwater in the opening game at 4:30 p.m.

“We are treating every game now as a knockout game. If we’re going to make it to No. 7 or 8, it will

going to face the top teams. But if we land on No. 3, 4, 5 and 6, at least it’s going to be a best-of-three Austria told phone interview.

Austria stressed that considering their situation; there is no substitute for hard work.

“Mathematically, we can still end up at No. 1 at 8-3. But the fact that we lost our last three games, we really need to work hard. Our lineup is competitive, but our opponents are strengthened by their respective imports so we have to realize that we have to in a

In SMB’s last game, returning import Renaldo Balkman posted 32 points and 13 rebounds but it wasn’t enough to save the Beermen from losing to Alaska 103-105.

Meanwhile, Filipino-German top overall rookie Christian Standhardinger had an average of 14.3 points and 8.6 rebounds in the Beermen’s last three games.

Standhardinger and Balkman will team up with locals June Mar Fajardo, Arwind Santos, Marcio Lassiter and Chris Ross to tow San Miguel Beer to the winning column.

“I hope the players will have a sense of urgency because there is no amount of motivation that could motivate the players if they are not

Phoenix coach Louie Alas and his wards are ready for the Beermen’s onslaught.

“We knew that San Miguel Beer is

they will play its A-Game but we will

Alas, who will rely anew on import Eugene Phelps who replaced the injured James White.

Phelps pulled off an impressive 25 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists performance in their double-overtime 103-98 win over crowd-favorite Barangay Ginebra San Miguel last Sunday.

“We need to win to increase the team’s level of competitive-

Meanwhile, NLEX coach Yeng Guiao said that they have to deal with Kiefer Ravena’s absence.

“First, we are saddened about what happened to Kiefer (Ravena). But our focus as a team is to keep on building a competitive team despite what happened to Kiefer and Kevin (Alas). We lost our top two guards but it will not stop us from trying to form a champion-