Last week, the battle for the
2019 PBA Commissioner’s Cup championship title began. Already the defending
champions Barangay Ginebra San Miguel was knocked out of consideration during
the Playoffs semifinals, after falling to a determined TNT KaTropa team three
games to one to secure the first berth on the Finals. On the other side, the
last Commissioner’s Cup runner-up the San Miguel Beermen also cruised to a 3-1 semis
victory to crush Rain or Shine’s hopes anew. Thus starting from August 4 TNT
and San Miguel have clashed four times for supremacy, and from the look of
things the favor of ultimate victory seems to be swinging back and forth.
ESPN 5 has it that on Game 4 of the 2019 PBA Commissioner’s Cup
Finals, held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last Sunday, August 11, the San Miguel
Beermen cut off a potential breakaway streak by the Talk & Text KaTropa to
tie the series at two matches each. This falls into the forming trend of the
teams trading one win for another, with TNT drawing first blood on Game 1 last
August 4. The Beermen fought back to win Game 2 (August 7) on double overtime,
only for the KaTropa to take August 9.
Both TNT and San Miguel are
bringing their A-plus games to this Best-of-Seven battlefield, with every game
played thus far ending with triple-digit final scores. TNT took the lead first,
while the Beermen made up for a slow First Quarter by blitzing the Second and
Third. The KaTropa would rally to lead in the final quarter, but good return
play by San Miguel (added to TNT’s low Q3 scoring) contributed to the series
being even.
As expected, the imports took
center stage in carrying their respective teams, with TNT’s Terrence Jones
going 32 points and 16 rebounds, as expected of the one to be named the 2019
Commissioner’s Cup conference’s Best Import, awarded just before the start of
Game 4. Jones’ teammate Jason Castro would get Best Player of the conference.
None of these would matter on the court Sunday night against a Beermen squad
led by their import Chris McCullough. He would contribute 27 points and 22
rebounds to the San Miguel victory, added to Alax Cabagnot’s 25 points and June
Mar Fajardo’s 22.
Beermen coach Leo Austria commended
his team for their singular focus and ability to stick to a winning plan. He
considered Game 4 key to avoiding a painful 3-1 series situation on their side,
something considered hard to bounce back from in PBA Finals history. A
nail-biting tiebreaker awaits San Miguel and TNT KaTropa this coming Wednesday
on August 14.
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