San Miguel def Rain or Shine, 106-89 [SF Game 2 | PBA S48 PH Cup | May 19, 2024]

San Miguel may have stretched its dominance over Rain or Shine, but coach Jorge Gallent knows such mastery may not last long if his Beermen are not careful in the remaining games of their PBA Philippine Cup semifinals duel.

“Rain or Shine deserves to be in the semifinals. They’re a great team, they’re young,” Gallent pointed out. “It’s a good team, a well-balanced team and it’s well-coached.”

Gallent uttered the reminder after his Beermen hacked out a 101-98 decision over the Elasto Painters last Friday at the start of the best-of-seven match-up, a win the former would be trying to follow up Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The victory stretched SMB’s winning streak over Rain or Shine to eight games but came after a gallant stand by the latter that ended in a result way short of the expected romp by the top-ranked squad over its relatively inexperienced opponent.

And it also gave Gallent more reason to warn his players to continue withstanding the E-Painters’ unrelenting pressure – or else.

“Iyung turnovers nga, for us not to get into this situation,” said Gallent after SMB committed 15 turnovers that Rain or Shine converted into 14 points.

“They are a running team so as much as possible they want you to commit turnovers and they want you to take bad shots. That’s their way of running the game, eh,” added Gallent. “If we do that, then we won’t have a chance defending them and, as what I’ve said, we can’t give them easy baskets. In the end we will have a hard time.”