Elimination top two teams Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and Rain or Shine try to book early semifinals seat when they take on bottom seeded Alaska and Global Port as quarterfinal action resumes today at the Mall of Asia Arena.
photo credit: pba.inquirer.net (Nuki Sabio)
The Gin Kings and the E-Painters, who are enjoying twice-to-beat incentives, should not take Aces and Batang Pier lightly as both of the squads are potent enough to pull off a playoff upset.
Between the two, Ginebra should be more wary as the crowd favorite ball club is bringing no momentum heading in this game after they suffered a distressing, 103-79 loss to Talk n’ Txt.
Conversely its quarterfinals rival Alaska on other hand have all sorts of morale as they are coming from a back-to-back win or go home situations, Alaska survived Barako, 89-80 on Sunday which they followed with a 94-91 escaping of Meralco the next day to break into the playoffs. This will be their third do-or-die game in four nights.
But the fatigue and injury issue favor Kings as Aces might be exhausted now after grueling games, plus the fact that their main energy guy Calvin Abueva is doubtful for today’s match.
Game time is at 8 pm it will be shown live on tv5.
Meanwhile in the curtain-raiser, Rain or Shine, which is coming of a seven-game winning streak should also not let their guard down as the Global Port could be very lethal at any given time.
The Batang Pier in fact split their two-game encounter in the elimination round.
Also much-anticipated for this playoff affair is the match up of flamboyant rookie Terrence Romeo and former rookie of the year guard Paul Lee, who just recently had trash-talking engagement.
Tip-off is at 5:45 pm; this will be televised live on AksyonTv 41.