Defending champions TNT Tropang Giga are now a win away from retaining their title following a 102-93 Game 5 victory over San Miguel Beermen in the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup finals on Wednesday.
The Tropang Giga have a chance to win back-to-back Philippine Cups on Friday, but might have to do it with a key player.
With Wednesday's win moving TNT to the brink of another success, here are three thoughts on the game.
Life begins (again) at 40 for Kelly Williams
TNT center Kelly Williams walked away from the PBA two years ago and thought he was done playing professional basketball. But a coaching change at his former team prompted him to return, and he won 7th PBA championship last year in the second Clark bubble.
A year later, the Tropang Giga are back in the Philippine Cup finals, and Williams -- who turned 40 in February -- is playing like it's 2008 (the year he was named Most Valuable Player).
He played 33 minutes and scored 21 points, while also taking on the unenviable task of defending this fellow named June Mar Fajardo.
"It's pretty ridiculous, right?" he remarked. "Less than two years ago I was sitting on my couch eating Doritos. But no question if this guy (points at coach Chot Reyes) hadn't come back, I wouldn't have.
"I'm in no better situation than to be under coach Chot. And for myself personally I wouldn't have come back if I didn't believe I could be in this position again.
"We've got a great circuit of guys, the coaching staff, organization, the support, everything. The unity there, to me it's been unmatched. And I'm just grateful to be here."
Williams' 21 points is the most he's scored in a playoff game since he had 23 in a TNT loss to Rain or Shine in the 2017 Governors' Cup, according to PBA statistician Fidel Mangonon III. The four triples he buried tied a playoff career-high that he set in 2018.
"When Kelly is hitting those threes, (he is a) huge, huge factor for us," Reyes noted.
Guarding 'The Kraken'
As mentioned earlier, Williams has drawn the primary assignment of trying to slow down SMB's June Mar Fajardo, who is quietly putting together a statistically dominant finals series with averages of 20 points and 17.5 rebounds.
"Guarding June Mar, I think you have to have a prayer on your side," Williams said. "He's a big boy. He's big and heavy and no way was that on me.
"Our defense as a team carried a lot of the load. I trust those guys behind me and try to go in and do my part. With June Mar you don't stop him. He's the G.O.A.T. so you just try and slow him down, give him some resistance and pray for the best."
Fajardo drew six fouls from his defenders in Game 5, including four from Williams.
"I don't know if I haven't guarded him without fouling yet," added Williams. "He's a load, no question. My job is to just try to give him some resistance. Not make it easy for him and trusting that the guys are gonna be there to help pull the weight. They did an amazing job."
Reyes said that while stopping Fajardo is close to impossible, they at least also want him to expend energy on defense.
"That's part of the plan to stop June Mar, is to make sure he also exerts effort on defense," said Reyes. "Like Kelly said, there's no way you can really stop him.
"The best thing we can do is to control him and contain him as much as we can. And we have to think of everything that we can do, whether that's our defensive schemes or making it difficult for him and also on offense as well."
But would the 2008 version of Kelly Williams have done a better job?
"Prime Kelly Williams was on the wing, so I don't know if he would have won guarding him,"said the resurgent 40-year-old. "I wouldn't have wanted to guard him either. I don't know. We'll play PBA Slam and see what happens."
Will 'The Blur' play in Game 6?
With 7:10 left in the third quarter, Jayson Castro rolled his ankle when he landed on Marcio Lassiter's foot.
He spent some time on the floor before gingerly getting up to make two free throws off of Lassiter's flagrant foul that tied the game at 61. He then left the game for good. The Tropang Giga regrouped and went on to outscore the Beermen 41-32 the rest of the way.
"The word that comes to my mind is 'courageous'," Reyes said of his team's effort after their star point guard went down.
"Poy Erram had a bad sprain in practice yesterday and he went to the hospital right after practice. He was in treatment the whole day today. And he suited up. We thought he wasn't going to be able to, but he suited up. That took a lot of courage. Jayson to shoot those free throws took a lot of courage.
"When one man goes down, there's no one person who can fill their shoes. Who can fill the shoes of Jayson Castro? But every other person, in their own little way, little by little, can. I think that's what happened today. Everyone pitched in."
Williams said the Tropang Giga thrive on adversity, and are also rallying around their embattled coach, adding: "Coach has been saying it all year -- this team is built for adversity.
"We've had guys in and out all throughout the year. Of course, Jayson is a big reason why we're here. But we know it's on us to try to fill the shoes collectively. I think everyone responded very well. Coach has trained us for moments like these.
"When you see your coach going through the ridicule and the sh-t in the media and just throughout the Philippines, and the way he's handled it, we have no excuse to look at anything and put our heads down. Again, we've been trained for a situation like this."
Castro left the Araneta Coliseum with a very noticeable limp. His status for what could be the series clincher is still unclear, although what the team's medical staff did for Erram gives Reyes hope.
"(Whether Castro will be available is) hard to say," explained Reyes. "We have to go by the medical findings first. We have to go by the science.
"It was the same with Poy. I literally had no idea (if Erram could play). But they worked on it the whole day yesterday until the evening, the whole morning. They got him ready. So we'll see.
"Our first order of business is recovery, if we can figure out how severe Jayson's sprain is. And then to recover the guys who played major minutes today physically, mentally, emotionally. I think that's very, very important.
"I've always said it. The hardest game to win is the fourth game. So we have no illusions about it. We know that it's gonna be a battle, a difficult war. So we have to be prepared. All we can do is prepare ourselves -- control the things that we can control and just be ready for Friday."