PBA: Beermen wary of bottom feeders

San Miguel Beer center June Mar Fajardo in action against Converge in the PBA Governors’ Cup.–PBA IMAGES

MANILA, Philippines—After improving to a 5-2 record in Group A, San Miguel Beer is tipped to handle its next two assignments in the PBA Governors’ Cup.

Following a 126-114 win over Converge on Wednesday night, the Beermen will face Macau on Friday, then Titan Ultra on Wednesday. Both teams are at the bottom part of the standings with identical 2-5 slates.

But make no mistake, June Mar Fajardo and the rest of San Miguel aren’t letting their guards down.

“We still need to go hard against them because our coaching staff always reminds us that we can’t take them lightly,” the nine-time PBA MVP told the Inquirer.

“Even if they’re at the bottom of the standings, they’re capable of winning the big games. For us, we don’t want to lose.”

Fajardo had a big game against the FiberXers despite his scoring woes after collecting 21 rebounds, 10 assists and four blocks with zero turnovers. Import George King dominated with 46 points and 14 rebounds for the Beermen, who continued to miss the services of key cog CJ Perez.

Perez suffered a groin injury early in San Miguel’s 110-96 loss to undefeated NLEX last July 26.

The Beermen dominated both the Giant Pandas and Giant Risers in their first-round encounters last month.

San Miguel routed Macau, 123-109, in its conference opener on July 14 before crushing Titan Ultra, 143-105 on July 29.

Coach Leo Austria, who had his official return as the Beermen’s head coach after undergoing a heart procedure last month, approaches SMB’s next two games with the same mentality as Fajardo.

“Games against those two teams are equally as important as when we play NLEX, TNT or Converge,” he said. Every win is for us to get to the next round,” he said.