{"id":210943,"date":"2019-04-22T22:36:20","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T02:36:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=210943"},"modified":"2019-04-22T22:36:20","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T02:36:20","slug":"phoenix-keeps-the-fighting-spirit-alive-after-close-win-against-smb-in-game-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/04\/22\/phoenix-keeps-the-fighting-spirit-alive-after-close-win-against-smb-in-game-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix keeps the fighting spirit alive after close win against SMB in Game Three"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_210944\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-210944\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/58033006_2725771604105924_1008909030673874944_n.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-210944 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/58033006_2725771604105924_1008909030673874944_n.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"960\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-210944\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">&#8220;Final: 92 &#8211; 90 in favor of the Phoenix Pulse Fuel Masters!<br \/>Best Player: Calvin Abueva with 18 points, 13 rebounds and 5 assists #PBALabanKungLaban #PBASemis&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pbaofficial\/photos\/a.168128433203600\/2725771600772591\/?type=3&amp;theater\">Photo<\/a>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pbaofficial\/?__xts__[0]=68.ARCc96myWGVVcHrOwiYru1VQiYTLj74dovQvMJgJposAaq_U7QF3yMaTswzNkuTAgrS-nOXbiWrWE72MRAfkMwim3IF5oGvbWXT75r5WwSuEZiHVZZokzvevY5YAkVmuhIUBUNT-piuS6RhKac9Wrva8zWB1rZjO1xc-I8JyDpckiEcyyhPfMuNPEd-GmO3qDzZlAVmgh3mwpBHRevMCmkYG8vNzLIWoISs8Sb08M1pGZBm-0XrR1wVRUoNM9GwgK6EasXT8B2ANysIoEraF2E7E7O5xma6muhDejAM74fIs_A9FrCpumi6G8N8N-xPLupe9ZCazLX44Cw_YB03lyrzM7A&amp;__tn__=k*F&amp;tn-str=k*F\">PBA<\/a>\/<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\">Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Phoenix Pulse Fuelmasters avoided a 0-3 deficit against the San Miguel Beermen (SMB) in the 2019 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup semifinals after winning by two points, 92-90, for Game Three of the Best-of-Seven series last Sunday, April 21 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Matthew Wright, who hit the crucial free throws to have an advantage during an 86-86 deadlock in the final quarter, finished with 18 points, despite struggling through foul trouble early on in the game. Teammate Calvin Abueva delivered as well for Phoenix with a double-double at 18 points and 13 rebounds. Justin Chua and RJ Jazul chipped 15 points and 14 points respectively, while JC Intal finished off with eight points, nine rebounds, and four assists. For SMB, it was big man June Mar Fajardo who led the way with 22 points, 19 rebounds, and two blocks, making it a tight game, but his missing 17 free throws jeopardized the close match. Alex Cabagnot helped with 18 points, Terrence Romeo provided 16, while Christian Standhardinger had a double-double at 16 points and 10 rebounds. Beermen\u2019s Marcio Lassiter, who averaged 19 points in the first two games of the series, sat out of game three due to back spasms.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I told them we could not afford to play a minute of inconsistent basketball. We need to play consistently for 48 minutes and fortunately, until the last second, we were able to execute,\u201d Phoenix head coach Louie Alas shared when it comes to how he motivated his team. \u201cI have to commend them because of their resiliency,\u201d he added<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Player of the Game Abueva also noted, \u201cWe didn&#8217;t give up. They are a really strong team but we held our fort and we fought to the end.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Game Four of the Best of Seven series between Phoenix and San Miguel is happening on Tuesday, April 23 at the Cuneta Astrodome.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Phoenix Pulse Fuelmasters avoided a 0-3 deficit against the San Miguel Beermen (SMB) in the 2019 Philippine Basketball Association &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-210943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sports","mauthors-gianna-llanes","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210943"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":210959,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210943\/revisions\/210959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}