San Miguel is not sitting on its laurels and is making sure that it is ready for the upcoming Governors’ Cup especially after losing to the finals of the Philippine Cup – a conference that in the past has been the Beermen’s favorite stomping ground.

SMB sniper Marcio Lassiter admitted that the loss to Meralco still stings to this day and the team is taking it as a motivation to make sure that they are preparing enough for the upcoming season.

“Anytime you lose you get hungrier. You let one slip and it still hurts. I keep thinking about it, the ‘what could’ve’ or the ‘what ifs’  but we tried our best and we know it wasn’t great enough,” said Lassiter.

“We just have to come in  really focused on what we need to do to get to that point and make sure that in the things we do, we improve. We made a lot of mistakes and those are a lot that we need to clean up,” he added.

The Beermen didn't really perform badly last season, claiming the Commissioner’s Cup title before going into the finals of the all-Filipino conference. At one point, the team was even undefeated and was one win away from completing a historic sweep of the elimination round.

SMB, however, encountered problems in the playoffs as it needed two games to dispatch Terrafirma in the quarterfinals despite a twice-to-beat advantage. 

The Beermen might have swept the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in the semis but they were made to earn it before losing to the Bolts through six games in the finals.

For CJ Perez, those were just a testament that SMB cannot be complacent especially with the rest of the field improving and getting stronger.

“Yung kumpetisyon ngayon sa PBA sobrang taas di mo masasabi kung sino yung mananalo. Talagang lahat naghahanda para sa conference,” said Perez.

“Di ibig sabihin, dati mga Terrafirma, nung nandun pa ako automatic matatalo, pero ngayon lahat kalaban na kayang manalo isang magandang pangitain ito sa PBA na talaga mataas na yung level ng competition,” he added.

While not complacent, Perez is preaching patience as SMB hopes to take the conference one-game at a time.

“Di naman namin nilalagay sa utak namin na babawi kami we just gonna do our thing kung ano yung mga ginagawa namin nung last conference  namin. Dahan dahan lang one game at a time,” he added.

There's not much changes for the Beermen for the brand-new season with June Mar Fajardo expected to lead the charge for the loaded SMB that also has Terrence Romeo, Chris Ross, Jericho Cruz, and Don Trollano.