By ADRIAN STEWART CO

The Magnolia Chicken Timplados Hotshots remained optimistic despite trailing by two games in their 2023-2024 PBA Commissioner’s Cup championship series with the San Miguel Beermen.

According to Hotshots head coach Chito Victolero, all is not lost for his team despite dropping the first two games of the championship series against the powerhouse Beermen.

“We’re down but we’re not out. This has happened a lot of times already anyway, but we’ll try to find a way to stop this offensive juggernaut,” Victolero said after their 109-85 loss to the Beermen in Game 2 last Sunday, February 4.

“We’re not giving up. That’s my message to my players. This is not the time to quit because we prepared and dreamt of this eight months ago. The only thing we need to do is rise and prepare for Wednesday,” he added.

Victolero said they spent the past two games strategizing on how to solve the volume of offense of the Beermen, especially through reinforcement Bennie Boatwright, Marcio Lassiter and Jaymar Perez.

“Our main problem is their transition offense, so we need to fix our transition defense. There were a lot of transition threes, especially in the first quarter. I think that’s the first thing we’ll fix,” Victolero said.

“At least, we have two days to prepare [before Game 3] regarding our defensive schemes and offense, also we need to do a better job finding better shots and open shots,” he added.

Victolero also said that he reminded veteran forward Calvin Abueva to keep his fouls and emotions in check after being figured in two incidents during Game 2 last Sunday.

“I will talk to him because sa personal fouls niya, nalalagay din ‘yung team namin sa penalty. So I think we just need to be better on that, and I think he needs to be better at that,” Victolero said.

The crucial Game 3 of the best-of-seven championship series between the Hotshots and the Beermen is at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City at 7:30 p.m./ASC, WDJ