Crowd-favorite Barangay Ginebra makes its debut tonight against San Miguel Beer as the Philippine Basketball Association On Tour preseason tournament returns to Ynares Center in Antipolo City for a double header.
The Gin Kings battle the Beermen in the main game at 7:30 p.m. right after the match between Converge and Meralco at 5 p.m.
After falling short in its three-peat bid in the Governors’ Cup where they lost to eventual champion TNT, the Gin Kings try to make heads turn sans head coach Tim Cone and several key players.
Cone and the main men have been given the green light to recharge their batteries following a grueling Southeast Asian Games campaign in Cambodia last month.
Cone remains in vacation mode in Australia while Christian Standhardinger and Japeth Aguilar, reigning Most Valuable Player Scottie Thompson and Jamie Malonzo are also unavailable.
Thompson and Malonzo took time off to attend to family matters and that prevented them from participating as well in Phnom Penh.
Standhardinger hurt his knee in the SEA Games while Aguilar is still taking it nice and slow given his knee problems as well, something that prevented him from suiting up for Gilas Pilipinas recently.
For San Miguel Beer, it will be an opportunity for returning star Terrence Romeo to ramp up his flashy brand of play.
The multiple-time scoring champion had shown a lot of promise the last two games by winding up in double figures.
“I’m still far from it,” Romeo said. “But at least the coaching staff is giving me the opportunity to get my game back quickly.”
The match between the FiberXers and the Bolts is expected to be a defensive struggle.
Both Converge and Meralco split up their first two games, but they have a chance to re-establish themselves with a victory and stay in the upper half of the standings.
