The Beermen, winners of five titles over the last three years, and the Hotdogs, seeking their first since winning the 1997 All-Filipino crown, are enjoying a 2-1 edge against Alaska Milk and Coca-Cola, respectively.
Victories by San Miguel and Purefoods will send the two teams under San Miguel Corp. to the title playoffs starting on Sunday. Aside from these two teams, the other PBA squads under SMC are Coca-Cola and Bgy. Ginebra.
San Miguel and Alaska, the 1996 grand slam champion, split the first two games of their best-of-five semis matchup before the Beermen took the pivotal third game the other day, 68-61, despite another forgettable performance by import Lamont Strothers.
Strothers has been performing way below expectations in the semis, leading to speculations that the fiery American import is nursing an injury. In three games, he has logged 27 points, 18 rebounds, seven assists and five blocks while committing 18 turnovers.
Purefoods, on the other hand, took the first two games of its separate series against Coca-Cola and seemed poised for a sweep until the Tigers, behind Rossell Ellis and Johnny Abarrientos, bounced back with a 77-72 victory last Sunday.