Game Today (Araneta Coliseum)
5:30 p.m. — Leo Awards
7:00 p.m. — San Miguel vs Ginebra

San Miguel Beer cannot afford to lose Game 4 against Barangay Ginebra Wednesday unless it wants to challenge history.

Only two teams have come back from a 3-1 deficit and win a best-of-seven playoffs in PBA history, making today’s game a must-win for the Beermen.

“Defense. We have to play defense,” San Miguel mentor Siot Tanquingcen said. “We can’t give up 40 points. We can’t win by allowing a team score 40 in a quarter.”

The game is set at 7 p.m., right after the 5:30 p.m. Leo Awards where the PBA will give awards to top individual performers this 2008-09 Season.

Shooting 50 percent from the field, the Kings rallied to defeat the Beermen, 116-103, last Sunday.

Ginebra import David Noel accounted for 14 of Ginebra’s 40 points in the final quarter. He went on to finish with 32 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists – his second triple-double in the PBA.

The return of Danny Ildefonso and Marc Pingris from suspension will boost the Beermen’s chances of reducing the series into a best-of-three affair. Ildefonso and Pingris sat out Game 3 after being found guilty of attacking a Ginebra fan at courtside at the close of Game 2 last Friday.

Apart from the one-game suspension, Ildefonso and Pingris were meted fines of P30,000 and P10,000, respectively. Tanquingcen said with Ildefonso and Pingris back in action, they will do a better job defending the frontline aside from giving Ginebra a problem in defense.

Uichico cited San Miguel’s formidable frontline.

“As I’ve said, it’s a problem to us,” Uichico said. “But laro lang kami, we’ll try to find ways to win the game. Play hard on the defensive end.”

The Kings forced the Beermen to 27 turnovers, translating it to 19 points and shot better from the field in the high-scoring game.

Noel is again expected to play a big role for the Kings with the help of top MVP contender Jayjay Helterbrand, Ronald Tubid, Eric Menk, Cyrus Baguio, Sunday Salvacion, Rafi Reavis, Paul Artadi, Billy Mamaril, and Willie Wilson.

This is only the fourth time that the SMC sister teams are facing off in the Finals and the first since the Philippine Cup Finals in the 2006-07 season.

The last time they faced each other, the Kings, down 0-2 in that series, won the next four games to win the title. It marked Uichico’s first championship with Ginebra.

Uichico led the team anew to a title finish in the Fiesta Cup last season against Air21 (now Burger King).

Tanquingcen, a former Uichico assistant, has two titles under his belt with Ginebra.

He is tasked with ending San Miguel’s four-year title drought.