MAGNOLIA braces for its next two games that may very well determine whether or not the Hotshots advance to the quarterfinals of the PBA 50th Season Commissioner's Cup.
On Wednesday, the Hotshots tied San Miguel at seventh-place in the standings after beating Titan Ultra, 135-98, to even their win-loss record to 5-5.
READ: Magnolia manhandles Titan Ultra, bolsters bid for playoffs berth
Magnolia now zeroes in on its final push for a playoff spot, tough it is undoubtedly going to be a tough stretch with games against TNT on Tuesday and Meralco on May 10 - two teams well inside the top eight.
At the same time, the Hotshots will have to monitor the results of the remaining games of two other teams in contention for the last two playoff berths.
SMB, which will lose the tiebreak with Magnolia if they remain deadlocked at the end of eliminations, battles Terrafirma next Wednesday then Phoenix Super LPG on May 9.
Converge, which sits at ninth with a 4-6 record, then has NLEX on Saturday and Blackwater on May 9 left on its ledger.
Control what you can control
From the looks of things, the Hotshots, Beermen, and FiberXers will be fighting over the last two slots in the quarterfinals, with Magnolia appearing to have the toughest schedule of them all.
Hotshots coach LA Tenorio's sole focus, however, is on their team and not others.
“I always remind the team that every game now is very important. But the good news is that we control our own destiny. Kaya naming kontrolin. Basta we just have to take care of every game. Let's see what will happen at the end of the eliminations,” he said.
“As long as we take care of our last two which is, hindi lang medyo, mabigat talaga eh. Meralco and Talk 'N Text.”
Nonetheless, Tenorio is confident his Hotshots can produce favorable results in their last two elims matches.
“I'm confident with my team,” he said. “I believe in my team na as long as we keep on fighting towards the end, mabibigyan kami ng chance at the end.”
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