The Bay Area Dragons drew first blood in their semifinal series against the San Miguel Beermen. Will the Dragons take a commanding 2-0 series lead this Friday? Or, will the Beermen forget the nightmare ending of Game 1 and level the series up at 1-1?

Catch this game live on Friday,  December 16 at 5:45 pm, Manila time.

Bay Area Dragons (1-0)

Projected Starting Five:

  • PG: Glen Yang
  • SG: Kobey Lam
  • SF: Songwei Zhu
  • PF: Hayden Blankley
  • C:  Andrew Nicholson

Bay Area was circling down the drain in Game 1 of this series, but the young legs of some of its players played a crucial role in the Dragons’ spectacular 103-102 win over San Miguel on Wednesday. “We never let it go. And then, as the game went on, now you got 22-, 23-year-old legs still out on that floor and it played to our advantage,” Bay Area head coach Brian Goorjian said after his team performed a miraculous comeback. But it was the veteran Andrew Nicholson who led the Dragons, scoring 30 points on 12/20 shooting. 

Nicholson is a problem for the Beermen, as he is forcing Junemar Fajardo to work harder on defense, which is taking away from the latter’s gas that’s usually reserved on offense. Bay Area’s defense also showed up when it mattered the most in Game 1, making stops and forcing turnovers. The Dragons have done that for the most part this conference and there are not a lot of reasons to expect that they can’t keep it up for the duration of the series.

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San Miguel Beermen (0-1)

Projected Starting Five:

  • PG:Simon Enciso
  • SG: CJ Perez
  • SF: Marcio Lassiter
  • PF:  Devon Scott
  • C: June Mar Fajardo 

The good news for San Miguel is that it put the Dragons on the ropes, reinforcing its belief that it can take care of business against the best team in the PBA this conference. The Beermen lost in Game 1 in devastating fashion but their mistakes in that contest were nothing they couldn’t fix right away. They committed 16 turnovers to just 11 by Bay Area. The Beermen also got outscored in transition, 15-2. 

Nevertheless, the firepower of their offense was there, especially in the first half with Terrence Romeo smoking hot. Romeo finished with 21 points off the bench on the strength of 6/8 shooting from deep. Speaking of outside shooting, Marcio Lassiter had a good start to the series, scoring 16 points on a perfect 6/6 shooting (2/2 from deep). Romeo, Lassiter, and CJ Perez ensure the Beermen always have lethal perimeter scorers and players who can break down Bay Area’s defense off the dribble on the floor. That’s not to mention Jericho Cruz, who had 11 in a reserve role in Game 1. A few adjustments and the Beermen could dominate in the early stages anew and finish much stronger in Game 2. 

PREDICTION:

Spread: San Miguel (+5) covers the spread. 

Over/Under: The total (215.0) hits the Under.