The San Miguel Beermen are entering the PBA’s three-week break on a high, capping off a five-game winning run with a 158-117 demolition of the Titan Ultra Giant Risers on Wednesday. Needless to say, the Beermen are in the kind of stretch any coach would dream of as they are playing some of their best basketball thus far after starting the Philippine Cup with back-to-back losses.
Leo Austria, though, wants more. He’s demanding more, even with the league pausing hostilities for three weeks to give way to Gilas Pilipinas’ FIBA November window against Guam.
“Kelangan meron tayong baon bago dumating itong break na ito, and a lot of them [San Miguel Beermen] are asking for a long break. It’s not a vacation, it’s a break because our next game will be against TNT, and we are not assured of anything yet,” Austria said during the postgame presser on Wednesday. “In order for us to get to the top four, which is our target, we need to have at least eight wins. More or less naman alam na nila ‘yun, that’s why ‘yung break namin gagamitin namin for us to be consistent.”
San Miguel to Get a Mini-Break, Then It’s Back to Business
While Austria wants San Miguel to continue building good habits and to keep working hard, he’ll nonetheless give his team a break—four days to be exact.
“Monday, we’ll be back. I will give them four days just to recharge…,” Austria told reporters. “We have a lot of things to do because we anticipate the things the other teams are doing because during that more than two weeks, most of the teams will spend that time to strengthen and to recharge and get into top shape because going into the playoffs, and we don’t want to be caught complacent.”
San Miguel, of course, got caught being complacent already to begin PBA Season 50, and Austria himself admitted as much. Five wins later, it appears the Beermen won’t be making that same mistake again.
