Games Today
(Smart Araneta Coliseum)
4:30 p.m. – TNT KaTropa vs San Miguel
7 p.m. – Ginebra vs Meralco
The PBA Commissioner’s Cup kicks off its quarterfinal phase with a pair of best-of-three matchups between teams owned by San Miguel Corporation and Manny V. Pangilinan today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Defending champion San Miguel Beer is hoping that its jittery campaign in the eliminations will turn out to be a minor bump on the road when it faces TNT KaTropa in the 4:30 p.m. opener before streaking Barangay Ginebra San Miguel takes on Meralco in the other match at 7 p.m.
San Miguel and TNT were expected by many to meet either in the semifinals or finals of the midseason tournament owing to their talent-laden roster.
But the Beermen’s inconsistency coupled with the KaTropa’s consistency in the elims forced both squads to have this faceoff come earlier than expected.
“It’s gonna be a war,” declared San Miguel guard Chris Ross. “I know they were hoping that they face us sometime in the playoffs but I know it’s gonna be a battle.
“We beat them in the (Commissioner’s Cup) finals last year and the game this conference was kinda chippy so we expect nothing less than a war. We’ll be ready and I’m sure they’ll be ready,” he added.
San Miguel beat TNT, 99-94, last June 16 but not after a tension-filled affair that saw the ejections of the Beermen’s Marcio Lassiter and Arwind Santos and the KaTropa’s Terrence Romeo and Tony Semerad for separate skirmishes.
Despite holding the higher seed – TNT placed third while SMB is ranked sixth, KaTropa coach Nash Racela believes is the underdog going into the series.
“We’re always the underdogs. Again, it depends on who looks at it,” he said. “It could be the underdog or supposedly the one with the upper hand. It doesn’t matter.”
SMB will parade import Renaldo Balkman, Ross, June Mar Fajardo, Lassiter, Alex Cabagnot and probably Christian Standhardinger, who remains day-to-day with an injury while TNT hopes to counter with big reinforcement Joshua Smith, Romeo, Jayson Castro, Roger Pogoy, Troy Rosario, Jericho Cruz, Don Trollano and Kelly Williams.
-JONAS TERRADO
