The San Miguel Beermen and the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel stand in each other’s way to a two-game win streak. Read on for more about this must-watch contest. 

Catch this game live on September 10 at 6 pm, Manila time.

The San Miguel Beermen (4-2)

Projected Starting Five:

  • PG: Chris Ross
  • SG: Terrence Romeo
  • SF: Marcio Lassiter
  • PF: Arwind Santos
  • C: June Mar Fajardo

The Beermen could not have responded a better way to their embarrassing loss to the Terrafirma Dyip. In their first game since that defeat, the Beermen took down the TNT Tropang Giga on Wednesday,  83-67. With newfound momentum, the Beermen will look to keep it going this Saturday against Ginebra. San Miguel leaned on a suffocating defense to deal the Tropang Giga their first loss of the conference. Chris Ross, in particular, was a disruptive force on that end of the floor. He finished with six steals to go with eight rebounds. 

Ross will be a tough matchup for Ginebra’s ballhandlers, plus he seems to be a great fit alongside Terrence Romeo, who is leading San Miguel with 20.7 points per game on 50 FG%. Romeo, who scored 16 points (8-17 FG) against TNT, is on a groove, and he’s benefiting from the presence of June Mar Fajardo and vice versa. No wonder that the Beermen are the No. 1 scoring team this conference with an average of 95.2 PPG and league-best numbers of 43.9 FG% and  51.29 TS%.

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The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel  (3-3)

Projected Starting Five:

  • PG: LA Tenorio
  • SG: Scottie Thompson
  • SF: Stanley Pringle 
  • PF: Japeth Aguilar
  • C: Christian Standhardinger

Ginebra got back to .500 after beating the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters on Wednesday, 83-77. Like San Miguel, that win came after the Barangay absorbed a loss at the hands of Terrafirma. The Elasto Painters are known to be a defensive squad, but Ginebra still managed to shoot 49% from the field and 54% from inside the arc. It was a complete team effort for Ginebra, with all five starters scoring at least 10 points, led by Christian Standhardinger, who had 16. 

Standhardinger will have his hands full against Fajardo, but he should get plenty of help from Japeth Aguilar and Price Caperal. Aguilar scored 15 points and had 11 boards and two blocks against Rain or Shine, while Caperal chipped in 11 points off the bench. Ginebra is averaging 85 PPG, but expect the team to get lots of extra possessions against San Miguel. The Beermen own a league-worst 17.37 TOV%. Also, Ginebra is No. 1 so far in the conference with 20.5 assists per contest.

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PREDICTION:

Spread: Beating a team like TNT speaks volumes about how good this SMB team is. Take the Beermen to cover the -3 spread against Ginebra.

Over/Under: This game features at least three of the top five big men, so expect lots of half-court sets. Take the Under 178.