The dreams of an undefeated 2022 PBA Philippine Cup campaign for the Bay Area Dragons all came crashing down when they fell prey to the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel on Oct. 9, 111-93. Having finally tasted a loss in the PBA, the Dragons will look to go back to their winning ways this Sunday against another powerhouse in the form of the San Miguel Beermen. The Beermen rebounded from a stunning upset loss at the hands of the Blackwater Bossing by taking down the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters on Oct. 9, 113-105. 

Catch this game live on Sunday,  October 16 at 4:30 pm, Manila time.

Bay Area Dragons (4-1)

Projected Starting Five:

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

The shift from Myles Powell to Andrew Nicholson didn’t click right away for the Dragons, as they got clobbered by the Barangay. However, Nicholson was still able to put up great numbers, scoring 28 points to go with 12 rebounds while shooting 12/24 from the field versus Ginebra. Nicholson can continue to have success in the paint even against a huge San Miguel frontline. 

For one, the Beermen’s defense seemingly has plenty of holes in it. San Miguel allowed an average of 107.0 points to its first two opponents. The loss to Ginebra could very well be just the cold water the Dragons needed to be doused with to avoid complacency following four wins in a row to start the conference.  Bay Area is third in the league as of this writing with 107.6 points per game.

San Miguel Beermen (1-1)

Projected Starting Five:

• PG: Chris Ross
• SG: CJ Perez
• SF: Marcio Lassiter
• PF:  Diamond Stone
• C: June Mar Fajardo

Sure, the Beermen lost to Blackwater in its conference opener, but they did not waste much time after that to get into their top form in the Rain or Shine game. Import Diamond Stone was simply unstoppable in that contest, scoring 42 points on 17/29 shooting to go with 13 rebounds. Meanwhile, Junemar Fajardo put up 21 points on 10/17 shooting with 8 rebounds, and 4 assists. 

With Stone and Fajardo, the Beermen will often have a decided advantage inside this conference. Bay Area has Nicholson and 7-5 center Liu Chuanxing, but the tandem of Stone and Fajardo looks much more impactful. Chuanxing has only scored in double figures just once so far in the conference and will mostly be utilized as a backup to Nicholson, which is the opposite of how the Beermen use both Stone and Fajardo.

PREDICTION:

Spread: Bay Area (-6) covers.

Over/Under: The Over (213.5) hits.