THE playoff scenario in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup began to have a clearer picture with the elimination phase now down to its final playdate by Friday.
At the end of the penultimate day on Wednesday night, San Miguel fell by the wayside and kissed its slim chance of reaching the playoffs goodbye after the NLEX Road Warriors whipped guest team Eastern, 94-76.
The 5-7 Beermen were hoping for losses by both the Road Warriors and Magnolia Hotshots in their final game in the eliminations to keep alive their bid for a quarterfinals berth.
With its third straight win, NLEX enhanced its last-minute bid for a berth in the quarterfinals as it climbed at the .500 mark (6-6).
Eastern suffered a second straight loss and finished the eliminations at 7-5, dropping its bid for a twice-to-beat advantage in the playoffs.
Meanwhile, Barangay Ginebra weathered a last-ditch rally by an import-less Meralco side, 91-87, to finish with an 8-4 slate heading to the quarterfinals.
The Bolts, who played without Akil Mitchell (back spasm), fell at 7-4 with still a game left against Magnolia.
Nonetheless, the Kings and the Bolts are headed for a best-of-three showdown in the quarterfinals regardless of the outcome of Meralco’s matchup with Magnolia.
Here’s a lookback at the takeaways in the penultimate day of the eliminations at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
1.ARVIN TOLENTINO, ROBERT BOLICK BOOST CHANCE FOR BPC AWARD
With perennial winner June Mar Fajardo expected to fall out of the race for the Best Player of the Conference award, Tolentino and Bolick are out to battle each other for the highest individual award of the conference.
In the last statistical tally released by the league at the start of the year, Fajardo, Tolentino, and Bolick occupy the Top 3 spots.
But with San Miguel failing to reach the playoffs, the two high-scoring players are set to overtake Fajardo in the standings and will have a strong shot at winning the title for the first time in their careers most especially if their respective teams, Northport and NLEX, made it deep into the playoffs of the mid-season conference.
2.NORTHPORT FINISHED AT NO. 1 FOR FIRST TIME IN FRANCHISE HISTORY
The Batang Pier are having a breakout campaign this season. They’re heading to the playoffs with a league-best 9-3 record for a twice-to-beat advantage against the eighth-seeded team in the quarterfinals.
It’s the first time Northport emerged as the top team at the end of the eliminations, and its win-loss slate tied the all-time most wins in franchise history first achieved in the 2019 Commissioner’s Cup.
Certainly, expectations are running high for the Batang Pier once the quarterfinals get underway.
3.NLEX YET TO SECURE A PLAYOFFS BERTH
For the record, the win over Eastern has yet to guarantee the Road Warriors a place in the quarterfinals. At most, it has just placed a foot in the playoffs and could still go through a sudden-death depending on Magnolia’s final game against Meralco on Friday and Rain or Shine’s match opposite TNT.
A loss by the Hotshots however, would have NLEX advancing outright to the next round. A win by both Magnolia and TNT would also shove the Road Warriors to the quarterfinals, with the Hotshots and Elasto Painters disputing the eighth and final quarterfinals ticket via a playoff.
4.A PBA PLAYOFFS WITHOUT SAN MIGUEL
Fans will get to experience the first PBA playoffs without a San Miguel Beer team playing for the first time in a decade. The sword of Damocles finally fell on the embattled Beermen after the Road Warriors' 18-point blowout of Eastern.
The last time the proud franchise failed to make the quarterfinals came in the 2015 Commissioner's Cup, by which time CJ Perez and Jeron Teng were still playing with Lyceum and De La Salle, respectively, and a few months before Mo Tautuaa emerged as the no. 1 overall pick in the 2015 draft.
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