Despite being doubled down at times, Fajardo proves to be too much against Ginebra in semifinal series
Double-teams. Triple teams. Occassional elbow hits and other cheap shots.
None of them seem to have stopped June Mar Fajardo during their semifinal series against the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings as Fajardo seems to have found ways to go around the defense of Ginebra, leading the San Miguel Beermen to a 4-1 series win which was capped by a crazy Game 5 victory which sealed the Beermen's 4th consecutive trip to the Philippine Cup Finals.
For his MVP-worthy effort, June Mar Fajardo earned the Play of the Week plum for the period of March 13 to 18, 2018. During that span of time, the Kraken normed 20 points and 12 rebounds per game. His highest scoring game in that series against Ginebra took place in their Game 2 victory where he exploded for 33 points while grabbing 19 rebounds. After the Gin Kings took Game 3, Fajardo had 14 points and 13 rebounds in their Game 4 and finished the series with 25 points and 9 rebounds in the clincher.
And June Mar Fajardo is only beginning to crack the surface this season which means he can score more than that.
Focus on the Big Picture
Now that the Beermen are back in the Finals- something that has been predicted by many, Fajardo and the rest of the defending champions are resting their aching bodies from all of the beatings that the Gin Kings threw on them during the semifinals and will have to wait for the other semifinal series between the NLEX Road Warriors and the Magnolia Hotshots to conclude with the Hotshots holding a 3-2 series lead heading into tonight's Game 6.
And regardless of who will come out victorious from that series, Fajardo and company should be prepared considering the fact that the series between NLEX and Magnolia has been unpredictable and mind you, both teams are missing one key star- Kevin Alas of NLEX and Marc Pingris of Magnolia. Both are out for the rest of the season due to identical injury: the ACL injury.
Conclusion
June Mar Fajardo is likely to impose his will in the paint once the Finals kicks off. And that's a problem for whoever team who will play dance against the mighty San Miguel team becase aside from Fajardo, they are also loaded with 4 more stars.
