Game Six: Ginebra looking to dethrone SMB

Game Today (Mall of Asia Arena) 7 p.m. – Ginebra vs San Miguel (Ginebra leads series 3-2) Series Summary: Game 1 – Ginebra 127, San Miguel 99 Game 2 – San Miguel 134, Ginebra 109 Game 3 – San Miguel 132, Ginebra 94 Game 4 – Ginebra 130, San Miguel 100

Game 5 – Ginebra 87, San Miguel 83

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel is hell-bent on not giving defending champion San Miguel Beer a lifeline as it seeks to wrap up the best-of-7 Finals tonight at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Two straight wins, including the closest game of the series filled with blowouts, have put the crowd favorites on the cusp an 11th title, with import Justin Brownlee urging his teammates to come out with their A-game in the potential clincher at 7 p.m.

“I think we have to play the game of our lives, especially having to go up against the defending champions,” the Best Import of the Conference said. “But we’ve expect that, just what we’ve expected the whole series. And hopefully we can close it out.”

LA Tenorio once again harped on playing with a do-or-die mentality, given San Miguel’s experience of overcoming obstacles during its run of six championships in the last three seasons.

“We cannot give them a chance to play a Game 7 because it’s very difficult facing San Miguel,” Tenorio said.

For San Miguel’s Arwind Santos and import Renaldo Balkman, the series is far from over.

Santos, the undisputed villain in the eyes of the Ginebra faithful, is determined to play as if the Grinch is out to spoil Christmas.

“We told ourselves that we once survived a 0-3 deficit, so we ought to be able to hurdle this,” said Santos in the vernacular, a comment that may fuel even more the fire within the Ginebra supporters. Balkman was even more defiant. “It’s do-or-die, but they haven’t beaten us yet. And till that happens, we still got a chance,” he said. “We got to win two in a row. No matter what happens, we got to win two in a row.”

Ginebra claimed Sunday’s fifth game with an 87-83 win, as Scottie Thompson played the hero’s role and San Miguel suffered a rare collapse after leading by five points with over five minutes remaining.