The scoreline doesn’t show it, but Friday night’s San Miguel Beermen-Meralco Bolts clash had some action in it, courtesy of Nico Salva and Marcio Lassiter.
With 3:11 remaining in the third quarter, Lassiter and Salva were called for technical fouls each. They had been jawing each other following the former’s three-pointer that went in seamlessly all over the outstretched arms of the latter.
It had started seconds earlier, when they fought over the loose ball. They traded jibes non-stop from that point on, until that booming trey on Salva’s face. The referee was quick to separate the two, though.
Still, Lassiter had the last laugh. He scored 25 points to lead the Beermen to a 105-93 victory for their second win in a row.
“Oh that guy? He woke me up. Pretty much I was just playing my game, trying to play team game, and I guess he just woke up a sleeping dragon. He just barked the wrong tree. He kinda just woke me up, pretty much,” said Lassiter, an eight-year pro.
“I guess, thanks Nico for firing me up a little bit. I didn’t need it but it helped,” he added with a grin.
That spat is the least of Lassiter’s concerns. For the veteran sniper, he’s just glad that his Beermen are finding their groove in the all-Filipino conference, especially on defense. San Miguel have now improved to 2-1.
“We’re learning. It’s a learning process. We kinda know what to expect and we just try to bring the same intensity from the Ginebra game and to each game, so we just have to continue playing defense,” said Lassiter.
“Keep playing better defense and just play our game. I know we can play a lot better defense.”
