If you happened to miss out on the 2021 PBA Philippine Cup’s Sunday double-header slate, here’s a quick rundown to keep you updated.

Tautuaa, SMB make easy work of TNT

The San Miguel Beermen handed out a 116-90 beating of the TNT Tropang Giga to tie their best-of-seven semifinals series at two wins apiece. 

Main Takeaways:

• By the end of the first two quarters of Game 4, Mo Tautuaa already had 19 points, matching his best output in this conference. But this is neither a surprise nor a bonus performance for San Miguel, as Tautuaa has been one of their most efficient players in their current campaign. Tautuaa’s true shooting percentage (TS%) of 56.5% ranks him second among San Miguel players averaging at least 15 minutes per game, which means that he makes the most of his scoring opportunities. On top of that, Tautuaa also ranks third within his team in Offensive Load (OffLoad) with a rating of 33.3. This tells us that even though Tautuaa comes off the bench, he is involved a lot in the Beermen’s offense when he’s on the floor. Tautuaa has been one of San Miguel’s most trusted offensive players this conference, and he delivered with a big scoring performanceof 25 markers in Game 4.

• Mikey Wiliams again struggled with his shooting, but the Tropang Giga cannot afford a game in which both Williams and RR Pogoy are missing their shots. Pogoy, who was coming off a 26-point outing in Game 3, only had two points and made only one of his 10 total attempts in Game 4. One bright spot for the TNT backcourt was that veteran guard Jayson Castro, who only produced a combined 17 points in Games 2 and 3,  got himself going in Game 4 with 15 points off the bench. 

Magnolia’s defense suffocates Meralco

The Magnolia Hotshots turned to their defense to carve out an 81-69 victory over the Meralco Bolts and take a commanding 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven semifinals series.

Main Takeaways:

• The Hotshots defense turned in an excellent performance tonight as they forced the Bolts to commit 22 turnovers that resulted in 26 points at the other end of the floor. Magnolia also took a page out of Meralco’s playbook in Game 3 as they clogged the paint and dared the Bolts to shoot from the outside. The strategy paid dividends as Meralco only made five of their 32 attempts from deep (15%). One concern for the Hotshots in this game is the physical condition of their star shooting guard Paul Lee as it was obvious that he is still feeling the lingering effects of a minor shoulder injury he sustained in Game 3. Lee only shot a 2-of-11 clip from the field, and his jumper didn’t have that usual arc as before.  

• Meralco surely missed their bench output tonight. Mac Belo, Allein Maliksi, and Alvin Pasaol combined for a lowly 2-of-16 shooting, as Meralco’s second unit was basically a non-factor in Game 4. On top of that, they have to cut down on their turnovers — they had 22 miscues tonight. This has been a weakness for Meralco throughout their current campaign, evidenced by the fact that they average 17.1 turnovers per game, which is the highest in this conference. 

Advanced Stats are now available for Philippine basketball! Through Ryan Alba’s ‘Stats by Ryan’, you can now look at team and player advanced stats for the current 2021 PBA Philippine Cup (and the previous three seasons) via the Dribble Media website.

Check out this glossary for a list of the basketball advanced stats terminologies.

You can also contact Ryan via his Twitter handle (@_alba__).