MANILA, Philippines – The PBA Philippine Cup semifinals duel between San Miguel and Phoenix is as physical and intense at it could get with elbows thrown, bodies crashing the floor, and technical and flagrant fouls whistled.

But to Arwind Santos, all of it is just normal.

“Asaran lang, hindi naman sakitan. Asaran ‘yung nangyari, hindi siya ganoon kapisikal pa para sa akin,” Santos said. 

(We just try to get under each other’s skin but we don’t intend to harm. That’s all. It’s not really physical for me.)

The best-of-seven series might have reached the peak in physicality in Game 3 that saw the Fuel Masters edge the Beermen en route to a 92-90 win on Sunday, April 21. 

Phoenix’s Dave Marcelo was ejected for a flagrant foul penalty 2 on Christian Standhardinger while Matthew Wright was slapped with a flagrant foul penalty 1 on San Miguel’s Von Pessumal. 

There were also a total of 4 technical fouls called in addition to numerous chippy plays. 

In the end, the Fuel Masters proved to be the better team in crunchtime as they stopped the Beermen from a third straight win to trail 1-2 in the series. 

Still, Santos sees a silver lining in the loss, especially since San Miguel was just a possession away from taking a commanding 3-0 series lead. 

“Nakita ko masama laro namin, lalo ako masama laro ko. Sa sama ng laro namin, muntik pa kami manalo,” said Santos, who shot 1-of-12 from the field for 3 points. 

(We had a bad game, I had a bad game. But even if we played badly, we almost won.)

“May negative and may positive doon. Game 4, sana makuha namin ‘yung pangatlong panalo.”

(There’s a negative and positive way to look at it. I just hope that we could get the third win in Game 4.)

The Beermen have a day to go back to the drawing board before Game 4 on Tuesday, April 23, at the Cuneta Astrodome. – Rappler.com