MANILA, Philippines -- The San Miguel Beermen pounced on an exhausted Barangay Ginebra team on Sunday to get their quarterfinals bid back on track, as the defending All-Filipino champion came away with an 81-66 rout of the Gin Kings.

It was far from the dogfight expected between two of the contenders in the 2020 PBA Philippine Cup, and San Miguel coach Leo Austria chalked it up to Ginebra's exhaustion from its previous game.

The Beermen were coming off a 124-90 loss to the NLEX Road Warriors last Friday, where Marcio Lassiter sat out due to a minor injury while the SMB veterans played less than 30 minutes due to the blowout nature of the game.

Ginebra played on Friday as well, claiming a tough 85-79 win over TNT Tropang Giga where their top stars saw major playing time.

• READ: Beermen get quarterfinal boost after rout of Ginebra

"You know, in the bubble, it's really hard to win four or five (straight games)," noted Austria. "Sooner or later, talagang magkakaroon ka ng bad game."

"Just like what happened to ano, because of their game against Talk 'N Text. So they played all out, and then tonight makikita mo, 'yung sore(ness) eh," he pointed out.

"And of course, if I am a coach, I have to take care of the health of the players."

San Miguel built a 53-36 lead at the half, and weathered an uprising from the Gin Kings in the third quarter to pull away again in the fourth period. Ginebra coach Tim Cone opted to rest his stars for most of the game: Stanley Pringle and Japeth Aguilar played less than 20 minutes, and LA Tenorio, less than 30.

It was Scottie Thompson who led the Gin Kings, nearly tallying a triple-double (12 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds) in 35 minutes.
The Ginebra veterans, however, could only sit on the bench as San Miguel scored off turnovers in the final quarter to put the game out of reach.

For Austria, he understood Cone's decision, given the unique circumstances of this conference.

"The situation in the bubble is really hard because you're playing every other day, which is unusual for any team in the PBA, except pagka sa playoff. And meron ka pang back-to-back," he pointed out. "You have to think of the next game."

"Like for us, we played four games in five days. So it's really hard eh. And even though you want them to push hard, but hindi mo na sila mapipiga eh," he added. "Dahil we're after the health of everyone eh."

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Ginebra will barely have 24 hours to rest as they play TerraFirma on Monday night, in their last game of the elimination round.