There are many ways to describe the tremendous value June Mar Fajardo brings to the table for the San Miguel Beermen. 

For one, he draws double and even triple teams on a nightly basis and yet he manages to score with ease. Fajardo is a ball magnet in other aspects as well, as he can grab a ton of rebounds, to the point that he can grab more than 70 percent of a team’s rebounds such as what he did against the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings in Game 2 of the PBA Season 50 Philippine Cup semifinals. But Fajardo is not the only reason the Beermen evened the series with the Gin Kings. 

SMB found production from the likes of Jeron Teng, Don Trollano, Jericho Cruz, CJ Perez, and Marcio Lassiter, with the five combining for 56 of San Miguel’s 93 points in Game 2 (For his part, Fajardo had 21 in the victory). While Ginebra relied on their bench in Game 1, it was all hands on deck for the Beermen, who needed to be defined as more than just Fajardo. 

It’s more likely than not that Fajardo will continue to churn out monster performances and the Gin Kings will live with that. Ginebra will instead turn its attention to making sure his teammates can’t produce consistently. There are indications of that, as both Lassiter and Perez were not at their best in Game 2. Tiongson hasn’t established himself in this series as well. Fortunately for SMB, others have stepped up. 

Teng has had a different role in the PBA than with the DLSU Green Archers in the UAAP, but that hasn’t stopped him from rising up to the occasion in certain moments. The two-time UAAP Finals MVP was aggressive in attacking the basket and found ways to get his teammates involved. He wisely found mismatches whenever Gin Kings were scrambling on defense and ended up putting a smaller or less advantageous defender on him. 

It would be great for San Miguel to find more consistency with their perimeter players, but it’s more important that everyone adopts the next-man-up mentality that often defines championship teams. It won’t always be the points, because controlling possession or being a disruptor on defense could be just what the Beermen would need. After all, wins trump everything, including bad nights on offense. 

Besides, the San Miguel Beermen can always count on June Mar Fajardo to get a bucket. But what makes the Beermen a truly unstoppable force is when they’re close to firing on all cylinders. We’ve seen glimpses of this already from SMB so perhaps it’s fair to say that it’s only a matter of time before we see the vaunted San Miguel squad dominate.