Recent losses sharpened Beermen, says Gallent

MANILA, Philippines -- The last two defeats of the mighty San Miguel Beermen will be a great help in the semifinals of the PBA Philippine Cup, head coach Jorge Gallent said, as the defending champions go into the deep waters starting Friday.

The Beermen will be facing the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters starting Friday afternoon at the Mall of Asia Arena.

After winning their first 10 elimination round games, they fell against the Meralco Bolts in their final elims contest.

In the quarterfinals of the conference, they lost their first game against the Terrafirma Dyip, which forced the do-or-die matchup on Wednesday.

The defending champions then asserted their mastery and drubbed the Dyip to crash into the final four.

After the 110-91 win over Terrafirma on Wednesday, Gallent said that the back-to-back losses will “definitely” help in the semifinals.

“We had to grind to get the win. The score… it was really a tight match until the middle of the third or the start of the fourth,” the coach told reporters.

“Yeah, it’s a very good grind for us… This series really helped us,” he added.

Rain or Shine defeated the TNT Tropang Giga in the best-of-three quarterfinals to set up the semifinal date.

Elasto Painters coach Yeng Guiao, for his part, said that with the opportunity to face the defending champions in a best-of-seven series, they will be able to develop the team.

“We’re playing a long game. This is a long game for us. We cannot acquire talent that can be a game changer, we have to develop our talent and this is the way to develop talent,” he said in Filipino.

“Getting them deep in the playoffs, making them experience the playoffs, the adjustments to the game, the game planning, the emotional toll, they have to experience that because this is where they will develop their talent,” he added.

The second game of Friday’s double-header will be between the Meralco Bolts and the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel.