Alex Cabagnot and the San Miguel Beermen were flying high on Friday night, as their triumph over the TNT Katropa in Game Five of their best-of-seven series sent them to just a win away from the 2017 Commissioner’s Cup crown.
“It was a big confidence-booster,” said the 34-year-old gunslinger, who led SMB with 28 points, eight rebounds, and five dimes, after the bout at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum. “Kailangan namin ‘to kasi may game pa kami on Sunday.
“We’re gonna try to close them out on Sunday.”
The Beermen may be on the favorable side of the title clash, but Cabagnot is aware that closing out the Katropa imposes more challenges, given that the flagship MVP franchise is also an expert when it comes to tweaks.
“There’s a lot,” said Cabagnot, who is averaging 20.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in the Finals. “I can’t pinpoint one thing that we have to do or what we can do. There’s a lot of cognitive thing from us, and it’s a cumulative effort from all of us also.
“It’s just not that, you know, stop this person or this person — we have to do it as a team and look at our game plan.”
And for the Beermen to be able to end their 17-year title drought in the mid-season conference, Cabagnot and the rest of his squad will have their own sets of adjustments come Sunday, to keep pace with the hungrier Katropa.
“We just have to continue to make adjustments, continue to always be on our toes kasi palagi sila nag-a-adjust,” said this conference’s runner-up to the BPC crown.
