Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and Meralco — two teams that met four times in the past five championship battles — rekindle their rivalry in a crucial encounter in the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Game time is at 5:45 p.m. with the Kings and the Bolts tipped to go all out in a bid to grab a spot in the top four of the playoffs of the season-ending conference.
A win by the Kings will allow it to move up to the third spot with a 5-2 win-loss record while a victory by Meralco will but in a three-way tie for the fourth to sixth spots with a 6-3 card.
This will be the second of the four-game schedule in eight days for the Bolts, but head coach Norman Black and his wards have a bigger assignment to worry in Ginebra, their tormentor for the past seven years.
In their four previous finals encounters, the Kings always got the better end of their matchup with Meralco, giving the Bolts a chip on their shoulders against a banged-up Ginebra squad.
Japeth Aguilar, the 6-foot-9 forward is still on his way to recovery from a knee injury, while import Justin Brownlee, Scottie Thompson and Jamie Malonzo had just wrapped up their campaign with Gilas Pilipinas in the just concluded sixth window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers.
All three players played major minutes for the national squad, particularly in their game against Jordan where the three-time PBA Best Import finished with 41 points and Malonzo played the unusual role as a big man.
But fans would be curious to see Thompson, the reigning Most Valuable Player, bounce back strong after missing two crucial free throws that cost the game for the national squad.
If a top four berth is at stake in the Ginebra-Meralco tiff, the match between Phoenix Super LPG and Rain or Shine will be more of a battle for survival.
The Fuel Masters kept their hopes alive when they squeaked past Converge, 106-103, on Sunday night to book their third win in eight games.
More important is the game for the Elasto Painters, who are so desperate for a win that they brought in new import in Jordan Tolbert, who is coming off a stint in Taiwan.
Tolbert will be the Elasto Painters’ third import after Michael Qualls and Greg Smith, who pulled his hamstring in their previous game against NLEX.
Tolbert arrived late Monday night and attended the practice of his new squad, according to Rain or Shine’s head of basketball operations Caloy Garcia.
“We just walked through him to some of the things we’ve been doing,” Garcia said.
“He just has to be oriented on our scheme of things. Hopefully, he could adapt quickly to the system.”
