By REYNALD MAGALLON
An old rivalry will be rekindled while a perennial title contender will be up against a team seeking a follow up to its massive win over a former champion squad.
The Game 1 of what promises to be a pair of thrilling best-of-seven 2024 PBA Philippine Cup semifinals series fire off with Meralco and Barangay Ginebra rekindling their rivalry and Rain or Shine challenging defending champion San Miguel on Friday, May 17 at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The Elasto Painters battle the mighty Beermen in the first offering at 4:30 p.m. before the Gin Kings lock horns with the Bolts in the nightcap at 7:30 p.m.
Facing up against perennial title contenders especially in the all-Filipino conference, both Rain or Shine and Meralco are bracing for the tough mountain climb.
“Always hard and tough when we face Ginebra. They are well-coached; they’ve got some depth, aside from the depth, they got guys like (Ralph) Cu who is a really great role player,” said Bolts head coach Luigi Trillo
“It’s always challenging so we know we have our hands full. We’re gonna have to go back to the drawing board,” he added as Meralco tempers expectations against Ginebra despite its massive 91-73 win in their lone matchup in the eliminations.
A lot had changed since then however especially in the personnel standpoint with the Kings missing the services of Jamie Malonzo due to a calf injury and the Bolts now without Aaron Black due to a knee injury.
That put more responsibility on the two team’s respective stars as Christian Standhardinger and Scottie Thompson try to lead the way for the No.2 seed Ginebra while Allein Maliksi, Chris Banchero and Chris Newsome must continue to step up for the third seed Meralco.
In the same vein as the Bolts are the Elasto Painters who are facing a much bigger challenge in the powerhouse Beermen.
While SMB showed some semblance of vulnerability after getting disarmed of its twice-to-beat armor by eighth seed Terrafirma in the quarterfinals, Rain or Shine admitted that it would still be hard for it to topple the defending champion four times to reach their very first finals appearance since 2016.
The least the Elasto Painters could do, however, are to bring their best foot forward and hope that the ball bounces their way.
“I think the series is for them to lose. We will just be there. We will just hang around,” said Guiao. “Pahihirapan namin sila. Ganoon lang ang magagawa namin. Kung manalo, manalo. Kung matalo, kailangan matalo ka nang nakataas ang noo.”
ROS’ young turks passed their first acid test in the playoff with guys like Jhonard Clarito, Gian Mamuyac, Adrian Nocum, Santi Santillan and Andrei Caracut stepping up against the veterans of TNT to complete a series reversal in the quarterfinals.
Now they have to do it against a much-seasoned SMB team that featured June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Ross and Terrence Romeo – players that have won it all and are very much familiar with what it takes to be the best.
