THE PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals field is complete as NLEX, Blackwater, and Converge sealed their place in the next round after the victory by Magnolia over Rain or Shine on Wednesday night.
The cast is set but the seedings are not. An intriguing situation is at the bottom where the Road Warriors, Bossing, and FiberXers can still end up in a deadlock at the end of the eliminations.
See Magnolia ends Rain or Shine playoff hopes with emphatic victory
At the moment, NLEX and Blackwater are even at sixth with a 5-5 win-loss slate followed by Converge at eighth with a 5-6 record. The final playdate of the eliminations will have implications to their seedings as NLEX faces NorthPort in the first game and Blackwater going up against Magnolia Chicken Timplados.
In the event that NLEX and Blackwater lose, the two teams and Converge will end up at 5-6 win-loss.
According to PBA rules, ties will be broken through quotient unless it is for the eighth spot. The quotient will be crucial for the three teams as the one with the best quotient will take the sixth spot and play in a manageable best-of-three quarterfinals. The bottom two teams, however, will be ranked either seventh and eighth, and will face twice-to-beat teams San Miguel and TNT respectively.
Ariel Vanguardia and the Bossing occupied a spot in the top half of the standings early but could still end up at No. 8.
Under this scenario, here’s how the seedings will play out.
No. 6 – NLEX
The Road Warriors take the sixth-seed by virtue of a 1.4444 quotient even with a defeat against NorthPort. NLEX defeated Blackwater by a huge margin, 98-68, even though they lost to Converge, 112-108. The Road Warriors will play the third-seed in the quarterfinals.
No. 7 – Converge
The FiberXers get No. 7 with their 1.0303 quotient. They won over NLEX by four points, and beat Blackwater, 92-90, just last Wednesday.
No. 8 – Blackwater
For all its progress in the eliminations, Blackwater can still go down to No. 8 with a defeat against Magnolia due to its inferior 0.8316 quotient. The Bossing fell to NLEX by 30 points in a game where they only scored two points in the first quarter, and were defeated by two points on Wednesday by Converge. That sets up a quarterfinal match between top seed San Miguel where Blackwater needs to win twice in order to move on.
The same situation will occur even with an NLEX win as Blackwater will still drop to No. 8 as Converge takes the seventh due to the winner-over-the-other.
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