Streaking Magnolia seeks to sustain its winning run when it battles slumping Blackwater in the Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup on Wednesday at the Philsports Arena.
Action starts at 8 p.m. with the Hotshots shooting for their sixth straight victory against a Bossing side that lost five games in a row in the early stretch of the season-opening conference.
Meanwhile, another struggling team in Converge aims to break into the win column with a new import when it confronts NorthPort in the first game at 4 p.m.
After winning its debut game under new coach Jeffrey Cariaso last 8 November — a 103-84 walloping of Converge — Blackwater was given a dose of reality that it is still a work in progress.
Now, the Bossing face a more daunting task of snapping their skid against the Hotshots — the hottest team in the tournament after opening the conference with five straight wins.
But for Magnolia head coach Chito Victolero, they don’t want to look far ahead and would rather focus on the task at hand, which is beating a team that is desperate to return to the winning track.
“You know the saying that the most difficult team to beat is a team that plays with a do-or-die mentality and in the case of Blackwater, they’re now in a must-win situation,” Victolero said.
“We just have to play with a lot more discipline.”
In their past five games, the Hotshots did not only show discipline but also displayed the resolve to win. In fact, they crawled from under a deep 29-point hole to pull off a 93-91 victory over Barangay Ginebra San Miguel last 19 November at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
But Blackwater isn’t the only team playing with a sense of urgency as Converge is also hard-pressed to win over NorthPort.
The FiberXers are the only winless squad so far, losing all of their first five games and are now on the brink of getting eliminated early for the first time in their young franchise history.
Despite drawing the most explosive game from import Tom Vodanovich, a breakout performance from Bryan Santos and a steady game from Deschon Winston, the FiberXers still fell short in their last game against Phoenix, 98-99, last 2 December.
Vodanovich wound up with 35 points, the biggest he produced in the tournament.
But the Converge management had seen enough and decided to hand him the pink slip. He will be replaced by former National Basketball Association Jamil Wilson.
“He’s already here and will be ready to play and tomorrow (Wednesday), he’ll undergo height measurement,” said Converge governor Archen Cayabyab in a telephone conversation with Daily Tribune.
Listed at 6-foot-7, Wilson signed a two-way deal that allowed him to play for the Los Angeles Clippers and their affiliate Agua Caliente in the NBA G League five years ago.
He played 15 games for the Clippers in the 20-17-2018 season and averaged seven points in 18 minutes of playing time.
