It’s a war between the new kids on the block who are hungry for glory and the old hands already decorated with an array of championship rings.

The perennial contender San Miguel and the gatecrashing Meralco begin their best-of-seven in Game 1 of 2024 PBA Philippine Cup Finals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Wednesday, June 5.

Tip-off is at 7:30 p.m. with both teams eager to set the tone in what they expect to be a tough and long affair that pits the league’s offensive juggernaut in the Beermen and the defensive linchpins in the Bolts.

Meralco head coach Luigi Trillo is putting premium on the importance of the first two games in setting the tone for the entire series.

“It’s very important in these first two games, we set the tone. It doesn’t mean that we will win the series but we have to show that we’re ready,” said Trillo during the PBA Finals press conference at the Crowne Plaza in Ortigas on Monday, June 3.

Easier said than done, however, as Trillo is convinced that they not only need to assert their presence on the defensive end but they also have to show that they have the offensive firepower to match up to the depth of SMB.

If there’s something that Meralco can hold on to heading into Game 1, it’s the fact that the Bolts are the only team which found a way to solve the Beermen puzzle during the eliminations.

Meralco defeated SMB, 95-92, to deny the latter of an historic sweep of the eliminations and the Bolts are out to prove lightning strike more than once.

“Short turnaround for us. Wednesday we’re excited. I’m telling the players to appreciate it because you’ll never know when you’ll be back again. We’ve been to five championships in 10 years, think about that, it doesn’t come easy. It’s so hard to get here,” added Trillo.

For SMB, head coach Jorge Gallent believes that they need to start out strong against a team like Meralco although he’s wary that his team may begin the game a bit rusty especially coming off a 12-day break.

“We really have to start strong, especially this coming Wednesday. We didn’t play for 11 days, that’s why we’ve been doing a lot of scrimmages, a lot of team bonding so that we can start strong on Wednesday,” said Gallent.

Best Player of the Conference frontrunner June Mar Fajardo should anchor the Beermen on both ends of the floor although he is expected to face a plethora of Meralco big men trying to contain him, headed by the twin towers Brandon Bates and Raymond Almazan.

Some of the league’s best snipers in SMB’s Marcio Lassiter and Meralco’s Allein Maliksi are also expected to go on a shootout while the showdown of two-way guards in Chris Ross and CJ Perez of the Beermen and Chris Newsome and Chris Banchero of the Bolts also puts an interesting sidelight to the thrilling clash.