MERALCO has one leg through the PBA Governors' Cup finals door.
For coach Norman Black, it's now up to his Bolts to fine-tune a couple of areas in their game before they can complete their mastery over Magnolia Ang Pambansang Manok and hit their immediate target Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Back-to-back wins over the Hotshots, the latest of which was a 101-95 victory last Sunday, gave Meralco a commanding 2-1 lead in their best-of-five semifinal series.
Another win in the 6 p.m. encounter would boost Meralco to its fourth finals appearance in the last five editions of the season-ending tournament.
Not if Magnolia could help it.
"We still have a chance naman, eh. We're down, pero we're still not out," said Hotshots guard Paul Lee after the Sunday game. "May another game pa. Make sure lang na we have the proper mindset going into Game Four."
Black knows Magnolia is sure to turn up the heat even more, which is but natural for a team fighting for survival.
"I'm sure they'll turn up the intensity. Our guys are aware of that already," said Black. "We'll be ready."
The 11-time PBA champion coach spoke before finalizing his team's preparations for the match, which he centered on two things.
"We have to do a better job of limiting our turnovers. We're averaging 15 or 16 a game," related Black. "We entered the series as one of the best, if not the best, teams in not committing turnovers. But against Magnolia, like I said, we're committing about 16.5 a game. So that's one area."
How to stifle Magnolia import Mike Harris, specifically keeping him off the offensive boards, is another concern Black tried to address.
"Last game Harris made five baskets off offensive rebounds so we have to be better at cleaning up those rebounds," said Black.
"We did a good job in the first two games, then in the last game we gave up too many offensive rebounds. So that's another area where we have to do better."
