MANILA, Philippines – If there is one thing that keeps Norman Black’s hopes up after his Meralco Bolts succumbed to Barangay Ginebra in the first two games of the PBA finals, it is the memory of San Miguel Beer’s miraculous 0-3 comeback win over Alaska in the 2016 Philippine Cup.

The Bolts were on pace in equalizing the series, leading 75-69 with a little under 6 minutes remaining in the fourth. But their guns suddenly jammed as they failed to score a field goal from there on, allowing Ginebra to go on a game-clinching 17-1 run, 86-76.

Meralco still had a chance to tie the game as it trailed by just 4 points, 75-79, but Ranidel de Ocampo split his free throws while Jared Dillinger bricked both of his charities.

“A lot of things went wrong in the last three minutes. We’re up by a couple points, I think, with three minutes to go and we couldn’t make our shots, we couldn’t make our foul shots. Just about everything wrong in the last three minutes,” said Black.

Bolts import Allen Durham has been living up to his Best Import title he defended last Sunday by averaging 26 points, 18 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 2 steals in the finals but he can do it all by himself.  

Meralco has also shot poorly from three-point distance, an area they dominated until the end of the semifinals by averaging a league-leading 37.8 percent. In the finals, the Bolts are averaging a measly 22.8 percent clip from downtown.

“No question the locals need to step up a little bit to support Allen and make some shots, because that’s really the problem right now. Ranidel’s not making his threes, JD’s not making his threes so we’re not getting that spacing that we need around Allen to be able to have him to be successful.

“We’ve had that the entire conference but in the series so far, in the first two games, we haven’t been able to knock down our outside shots,” Black said.

Yet, the grand slam-winning coach believes they can still have a shot at the title, although slim, since few teams throughout the 42 years of the PBA had done it.

“We know what it’s like to be down 2-0 and most of the teams that had been down 2-0 had not bounced back to win the championship. But there are instances where teams had been down 3-0 and they came back and won. We saw San Miguel do it recently over Alaska so it is possible.”

“Until they win 4 games, we’ll be out there fighting,” Black concluded. – Rappler.com