Let it never again be said that Meralco Bolts cannot beat Barangay Ginebra in a PBA playoff series.
Thanks to Raymond Almazan's stunning three-point shot with a minute left that proved to be the difference-maker, the Bolts squeaked past the Kings 106-104 in their quarterfinal rubber match to move on to the semifinals of the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup.
As the dust slowly settles on a momentous triumph for Meralco, we take a closer look at the main takeaways from the contest.
A monkey off their backs
Chris Newsome and Luigi Trillo both referenced this metaphor several times in the post-game news conference as a way of saying that Meralco was 0-5 all-time against Ginebra in the PBA playoffs.
And for a while, it appeared as if the monkey wouldn't let go.
Meralco blew a 21-point lead in the third quarter and even fell behind by one with 1:12 left in the game thanks to LA Tenorio's triple. NSD was alive and well again at the Mall of Asia Arena, and the Bolts would once again fall to the Kings in the playoffs.
But this time Meralco finally got the job done.
"We just proved that if you're relentless good things will happen," Newsome said. "You just gotta keep fighting and enjoy actually having this challenge again, this opportunity to play Ginebra. We're not trying to avoid it all. This is something that we've been looking forward to for a long time now and we finally got it.
"It's nice to have that monkey off our back and we can finally move forward and enjoy the win, enjoy everything that we've built up up until this point."
"Just super relieved that we got our monkey off our back," Trillo added. "We were the whipping boys before with them. We lost five. I'm just so proud of our team. This guy over here (Newsome), he's our captain. He led us.
"We knew they would make a run, and we stuck together. It was good that we got the lead early. We just had to hold it out. It's hard when you're down against Ginebra."
Newsome returned the compliment to Trillo, who has led the Bolts over the past three weeks with Norman Black still in the United States.
"Coach Luigi, he's very experienced. A lot of people forget that he's been in the league a long time," said Newsome.
"He has a lot of basketball knowledge, and the thing that I admire about him is that he has an open ear. He's willing to listen to players, he's willing to listen coaches and everyone's opinions and how we can do this together as a collective. I think that's very important, to reach out to the players and understand what they see."
'Rakenrol' Almazan to the rescue
Almazan's triple was actually the first shot he took from beyond the arc in the game. Yet he took it with no hesitation after receiving a pass from Newsome.
"New (Newsome) has faith in Raymond, and he builds conference all around," Trillo said. "Raymond was struggling a bit at the start. We practice that shot, Raymond can hit that shot. Everyone played well, but it took that shot by Raymond to finally get the monkey off our back."
"Like Coach Luigi said, it's something that we practice every day," Newsome added. "We do shooting drills every day. And that's something that I do tell my teammates, is that you practice it every day.
"Go ahead and shoot it with confidence if you have it. And I was so happy that he took it, and at times like that, that's when you find out who you really are. You just kind of gotta rely on your preparation and the work that you've done and put into and just trust it."
"It's probably the greatest shot of Raymond's career," Trillo said.
"It might be," Newsome replied. "It was a great moment for him. But again, it was a complete team effort that got us this win today. That was a huge shot, but you gotta tip your hat to guys like Alvin Pasaol, guys like Kyle Pascual.
"You gotta give credit to everyone, but of course special shoutout to Raymond for hitting that shot. Big time. Let's rock and roll, baby."
Trillo vs. Ginebra, Cone
The last time Luigi Trillo was a head coach of a team playing against Ginebra in a playoff series, his team won.
It happened in the 2013 Commissioner's Cup Finals, when Trillo and the Alaska Aces defeated Ginebra 3-1, in what would turn out to be the last PBA title of the Alaska franchise. So technically, Trillo is now 2-0 as a head coach in PBA playoff series against the Ginebra franchise.
Trillo is also now 2-2 in his head-to-head match-up against Tim Cone in PBA playoff history. His Aces and the San Mig Coffee Mixers (now Magnolia Hotshots) of Cone battled three times from 2013 to 2014, with Cone winning twice. Before that, Trillo served as one of Cone's assistants at Alaska for 12 years.
So how did he rank this particular playoff victory?
"Anytime you go up against coach Tim -- I mean, 24 championships -- it's a dream to coach against him," said Trillo. "I've learned a lot under him, like I've learned a lot against coach Norman."
"But it ranks up there. This is Ginebra, and Ginebra's gotten us five times."