MERALCO seeks a commanding 3-1lead, while Barangay Ginebra hopes to even the series once more when action in the PBA Governors’ Cup returns to the Smart Araneta Coliseum for Game 4 on Wednesday.

Game time is 6 p.m. shortly after the PBA announces the winners of the Best Player of the Conference and Best Import awards where Scottie Thompson and Justine Brownlee — both of Ginebra — are the runaway favorites.

Thompson and Brownlee are again expected to be at the forefront as the Gin Kings try to recover from a 74-83 setback in the previous game and keep their title hopes alive in this fourth installment of the colorful Ginebra-Meralco rivalry in this import-flavored conference.

While admitting Meralco played a lot better in Game 3, Ginebra coach Tim Cone raised the issue of fatigue.

“It took a lot to win Game 2, and we just didn’t have enough down the stretch in Game 3. And I worried about that from the beginning of the game,”said Cone in an interview posted at the official PBA website.

“We panicked down the stretch and we obviously didn’t hit shots. We got a little bit selfish and we’re not moving the ball.”

Cone’s Meralco counterpart, Norman Black, said the Bolts also did very well offensively, with import Tony Bishop outplaying Brownlee.“

“I sound like a broken record sometimes but both teams played really good defense tonight and you can tell that by the score.It was very difficult to score out there, so it was just a matter of just getting some stops and trying to hold on as long as we could,” said Black, who is hoping to lead the Bolts to the championships after losing to the Gin Kings thrice.

“But we did have some good offensive performances, especially from Tony (Bishop).”

Meanwhile, the PBA announced that the PBA Governors Cup series is drawing record crowd.

Game 3 of the best-of seven series played at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City drew in a crowd of 16,104 — the biggest turnout in the series thus far.

It is the largest gate attendance for the PBA during the pandemic or since it began to accept back fans in the stand when the league resumed the season-ending meet last February.

Based on official record, the finals is averaging a crowd of 13,603.

The Game 3 crowd was also the most for the league at Mall of Asia since drawing in 20,490 during Game 6 of the San Miguel-Barangay Ginebra Commissioner’s Cup finals in 2018.

The results:

Game 1 — Meralco 104, Ginebra 91.
Game 2 — Ginebra 99, Meralco 93.
Game 3 — Meralco 83, Ginebra 74
(Meralco leads series, 2-1) 

Game Wednesday:

(Araneta Coliseum)
6 p.m. — Meralco vs. Ginebra