Blessing or curse?

San Miguel coach Leo Austria warned that his team’s 5-0 start in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup could either be a blessing or a curse as the league takes a week-long break for the All-Star Week.

The Beermen continued their rampage Saturday, spilling the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, 111-98, at the Mall of Asia Arena to remain the only team unbeaten in the midseason conference.

There seems to be no way to stop the flowing system being run by the Beermen. However, Austria said his players should be cautious with their perceived invincibility.

“It could make or break our team. What we’re trying to avoid is yung complacency, dahil habang nananalo ka, nagiging comfortable sila e,” Austria said. “In the next few games, malalakas na yung mga kalaban namin and we have to be more focused because we’re always a target of every team dahil alam nila na this team is really a contender.

“But I think we need to work harder dahil kanina medyo hindi maganda yung tinatakbo namin, though we’re leading because of the talent of the players,” he added.

The victory came despite import Charles Rhodes dealing with five personal fouls and Arwind Santos arriving minutes after tipoff, having been caught by the weekend traffic.

San Miguel, though, got a huge lift from reserve forward Gabby Espinas, who had 15 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two steals in his best game of the conference.

It seems Espinas has found his niche with the Beermen after the former Philippine Christian University star bounced around different teams since being selected, incidentally, by San Miguel in the 2006 draft.

“Sa akin, yung points, bonus na lang,” said Espinas. “Sa team namin, di ko kailangan umiskor ng marami. Di ako kailangan gamitin ni coach para manalo kami kasi ang lakas ng team namin. Magmula sa bench, pwede mo i-lineup sa ibang team. Kami step-up lang pag foul trouble yung import o si June Mar (Fajardo).”