Ginebra is one win away from claiming the 2018 Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner's Cup.
The Gin Kings showed they could do one better in the crunch as they squeezed past San Miguel Beer, 87-83, to gain a 3-2 series lead Sunday night at a packed Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
Scottie Thompson rose to the occasion and played his best basketball in the series as he soared for 11 rebounds and scored 20 points, none more important than his last four in the final seconds of the game to push Ginebra to a 84-83 lead before making things comfortable via a breakaway layup, 86-83, 23 seconds to go.
LA Tenorio, who had 15 points and 5 assists, then settled the issue by splitting his charities to give Ginebra the all-important leverage it needs when it plans to grab its first Commissioner's Cup title in this era on Wednesday.
The action-packed game which for the first time saw a victor win by less than double digits, had 10 deadlocks and 13 lead changes.
Renaldo Balkman played his heart out, but to no avail as he produced 34 points and 20 rebounds inside 47 minutes. JuneMar Fajardo had 23 and 11 as SMB incurred its second straight loss, no thanks to a mere 5 points from their bench.