Family feud will be the main storyline when sister teams San Miguel Beer and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel collide and TNT Tropang Giga and Meralco tangle in the Governors’ Cup of the Philippine Basketball Association tonight at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Beermen will face the Kings at 5:45 p.m. while the Tropang Giga confront the Bolts in the 3 p.m. appetizer of this explosive double-header that features teams under the umbrella of San Miguel Corporation and squads under the stable of MVP Group.
For San Miguel, it’s going to be a good opportunity to sustain its momentum as it collides with a shorthanded Ginebra side that will be missing the services of injured big man Japeth Aguilar.
The 6-foot-9 Aguilar skipped the past few games and his presence was greatly missed when the Kings suffered a 118-88 loss at the hands of another sister team — Magnolia.
Aside from being reduced into a benchwarmer for the Kings, Aguilar will also be sidelined when Gilas Pilipinas battles Lebanon on 24 February and Jordan on 27 February in the final window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan.
With the Kings licking the wounds of their 30-point setback to the Hotshots, they are expected to go hard against the Beermen, not just to get back on winning track, but also to regain their confidence.
“For us, of course, we’re coming off a championship. We’ve had a lot of success and started 3-0,” Ginebra coach Tim Cone said.
“But this loss, you know, it can be positive. Hopefully, we can gather ourselves from this loss, learn a lot and move forward. Understand that if we come out and play mediocre basketball and not really mentally focused, this could also happen not only against Magnolia, but a lot of teams as well.”
Ginebra, however, will be stacked against a San Miguel squad that is headed for a grueling schedule.
After beating NorthPort to regain a share of lead, 145-132, last Wednesday, the Beermen will face Ginebra on Thursday then collide with co-leader TNT on Sunday for its last game before taking a three-week break to see action in the East Asia Super League Champions Week in Japan.
Like the Beermen, the Tropang Giga try to wrap up the week on a winning note and sustain their remarkable streak that has been extended to four games following their 138-116 demolition of Blackwater on Wednesday.
The Tropang Giga will be facing a Bolts team that is coming off a loss last week against the Beermen.
It’s going to be interesting to see how the reinforcements of TNT and Meralco, who are both National Basketball Association veterans, will carry their respective squads to victory.
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson passed his first test with flying colors when he ended up with 37 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists while also making everybody around him look good, including Roger Pogoy and Glenn Khobuntin, in their 138-116 win over Blackwater last Wednesday.
Pogoy wound up with 40 points, built around seven triples, in tallying the second-best output of his PBA career.
Khobuntin, on the other hand, finished with a double-double performance of 13 points and 10 boards while two other players — Mikey Williams and Calvin Oftana — both scored in double figures as Hollis-Jefferson proved himself to be an ideal replacement for Jalen Hudson.
Hollis-Jefferson will be pitted this time against a quality import in fellow NBA veteran K.J. McDaniels, who just like the current TNT import, played for three teams in the big league.
McDaniels has been in his fourth tour of duty in the PBA and is now playing for his third squad, which has built a reputation of becoming a championship contender, especially in the season-ending Governors’ Cup where it reached the finals four times in the last five tournaments.
