San Miguel Beer's bench is considered very deep that the consensus is that anyone can be a starter.

But facing the B-Meg Derby Ace Llamados this Friday for the last outright semis berth in the PBA Fiesta Cup, the Beermen may need more than as they play a team whose starting unit can at times be superior to San Miguel's balanced bench.

The game is set at 7:30 p.m. at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium as the Beermen take on the league's hottest team which has collected six straight wins coming into this match.

Clashing in the opening game at 5 p.m. are Rain or Shine and Ginebra in another playoff match – this time – for the fifth and last automatic quarterfinal berth.

B-Meg coach Ryan Gregorio is upbeat about their chances: “It is no secret that they have the best talent in the league. But for as long as our team concept is on defense and offense are applied consistently, I really believe that we have a chance.”

That philosophy can be best gleaned by the results of their last six games which they all won to draw level with the Beermen at the end of the classification phase with similar 13-5 records.

The Kings and the Elasto Painters forged a separate playoff duel by finishing with identical 9-9 marks.

The Llamados and the Beermen split their head-to-head matches this conference with San Miguel winning first (80-72), before B-Meg Derby Ace came back with a victory in the second round (83-82) courtesy of James Yap's game-winning jumper with 6.7 seconds left. - www.mb.com.ph