Three-game sweep not impossible — Yeng

Red Bull is not out of the title duel despite falling three games to one in the series. Bulls coach Yeng Guiao and his troops are not about to give up the fight in the Gran Matador Brandy PBA Philippine Cup finals, saying it’s not impossible to beat Purefoods three in a row. Falling behind 1-3 in the best-of-seven series following a shattering 81-99 defeat Wednesday, the Bulls now need to win three consecutive games to claim the coveted All-Filipino crown.

"This team has been through a lot and winning three games in a row is not impossible. Maybe, it’s improbable but we don’t care about probabilities," said Guiao.

"Our main objective in the next game is to prolong the series. My views on these games haven’t changed — the longer the series goes the better our chances of winning it," Guiao added.

Guiao would have wanted to play today and Sunday. But with the weekend break, Guiao said they will try to make the most of it, hoping to return Wednesday with his team ready to repel the Giants’ first attempt at clinching the series.

"Just assessing my own team, I don’t think the break is absolute necessity for us at this point. We’re tired with all the games we have played but we would have wanted to play Friday and, if necessary, Sunday," said Guiao.

"But it’s there. We’ll just take advantage of it," Guiao added.

In Game Four, the veteran mentor thought they were hounded by the same problems that hit them in the first two games of the series.

"It all started with our bad start. We made a lot of bad decisions and it cost us the momentum. We lost our timing and they started hitting their shots. A third factor that brought us down was the breaks from the refs’ calls that went against us," said Guiao.

"It really looked like Games One and Two. It’s just that we gave up a 32-point lead in the first half this time. As it was, Iit’s tough to come back from 19 points, and tougher from 32 points down," Guiao added.

The Bulls returned from the halftime huddle with some adjustments in their game. But the best they could do was come within 13 points with a little over five minutes left tom play.

James Yap, who won the MVP honors before Game Four, scattered 23 points, including a triple and two free throws that stopped the Bulls on their tracks after drawing close at 72-85.

Thus, Yap and the Giants moved within a game of winning a fourth All-Filipino crown.

Red Bull needs to do a Purefoods act to steal the crown. It can be recalled that the Giants completed a big comeback from 1-3 down in beating the Alaska Milk Aces in their best-of-seven semifinals showdown.

Only one other team in the entire league history has ever climbed out of a 1-3 hole. Ginebra San Miguel did it against Shell in the 1991 First Conference.