Jul 18, 2018

Leo Austria sets sights on Finals



THERE'S still a tough job waiting to be finished by San Miguel Beer, but it seems coach Leo Austria is already thinking of the next one.

He even has a concrete idea of which between Barangay Ginebra or Rain or Shine will prevail in their separate PBA Commissioner's Cup semifinal duel.

"We're not thinking of the championship dahil kung para sa amin, darating 'yan eh," said Austria last Monday.

"But I think it will be a good series against Ginebra dahil alam naman natin they are the hottest team in the league right now, eight consecutive wins."

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Austria spoke following his team's 105-94 win over Alaska at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, giving SMB a 2-0 lead in their own semis matchup.

One more win Wednesday and the Beermen would complete the three-game sweep and push them into the best-of-seven title duel.

Already, Austria has some of his notes prepared for that eventuality.

"Makikita mo, nag-beef up sila with the addition of Jeff Chan, so probably they are preparing their team for our zone defense," offered Austria.

Chan, acquired from Phoenix last month, is coming off a 21-point game, anchored on 3-of-5 three-point shooting, for the Kings in their 102-89 win over the E-Painters at the start of their duel last Sunday.

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There should be other keys involved should such a clash does materialize.

Both Ginebra and SMB boast of hard-working imports in Justin Brownlee and Renaldo Balkman, respectively, with ample supporting cast for each.

There would also be the titanic clash between Kings center Greg Slaughter and Beermen counterpart June Mar Fajardo.

Due to an injury, Slaughter sat out the two teams' last finals duel, the 2017 PBA Philippine Cup championship which SMB won in just five games.

The Beermen would also like to avenge their quarterfinals loss to the Kings in last year's Governors Cup, which foiled the former's bid for a Grand Slam.(NC)