RAIN or Shine and TNT both forced do-or-die games in their respective PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinal duels on Wednesday night.
The Elasto Painters lost a 16-point second quarter lead, fell behind by nine early in the fourth, and then came through in the clutch behind the monster play of Jhonard Clarito for a 92-89 win over the no. 2 seed NLEX Road Warriors to stay alive in the playoffs of the season-ending conference.
READ: Clarito's 20-21 game against NLEX saves Rain or Shine season
The Tropang 5G followed suit soon after. They rallied back from a 13-point deficit, failed to protect a seven-point lead inside the final two minutes, before hanging tough in the end of a thrilling 89-88 victory against third seed Magnolia Hotshots to also remain in the hunt for a berth in the semifinals.
The pair of sudden-deaths will be played on Saturday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Here are five takeaways on Day 1 of the playoffs at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.
1.PRESSURE MOUNTS ANEW FOR MAGNOLIA
After dodging a bullet and clinching a twice-to-beat edge in the playoffs with their 88-83 win over TNT in their final game in the eliminations, the Hotshots again find themselves with their backs against the wall as they were pushed on the verge of eliminations by the Tropang 5G in their first quarterfinal duel.
Magnolia only has itself to blame as it failed to protect an early 13-point lead that allowed TNT to engage them in a close game down the stretch.
Magnolia bashers, which had long-dubbed the team as ‘Introvoys,’ had a field day doing their thing following another Hotshots collapse, and expect them to rejoice even more should the Purefoods franchise fail to reach the semifinals after another strong start to the tournament.
2.BGR, KELLY WILLIAMS OUTPLAY LUCERO-SANGALANG TANDEM
In a marquee matchup among big men tandem, the duo of Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Kelly Williams proved to be the better against the Zavier Lucero-Ian Sangalang pair as the TNT bigs accounted for nine of the team’s last 11 points to hack out the close win.
Back after serving out a one-game suspension following his flagrant foul 2 hit on Ginebra’s Troy Rosario, BGR bounced back strong and dropped 10 points and six rebounds including five straight points in a crucial stretch in the final three minutes of the intense game.
Together with Williams, the TNT duo tallied a combined 22 points and 13 rebounds as compared to the 24-9 tally of the Lucero-Sangalang tandem. The Magnolia bigs however, failed to score and counter TNT during the time BGR and Williams were doing their thing in the endgame.
3.CLARITO LIVES UP TO ‘MICHAEL JHONARD’ MONIKER
It’s one of the most dominant plays by a 6-foot-2 guard in PBA history which the Rain or Shine stalwart delivered. The De Ocampo College alumnus finished with 20 points and 21 rebounds while shooting 50 percent from the field in the team’s comeback victory against the Road Warriors.
The 20-20 game was the first by a local in Rain or Shine franchise history, according to resident league statistician Fidel Mangonon III, and the first by a local player of Clarito’s height since Calvin Abueva finished with 23 points and 21 rebounds for Alaska in the 2014-15 Philippine Cup.
More so, Clarito punctuated his career performance by being a one-man wrecking crew against NLEX. He outrebounded the entire Road Warriors in the final quarter, 13-12, and came close to outscoring them during the same stretch, 14-16. He also shot better from the field during the fourth period at 57 percent compared to the 21 percent of NLEX.
4.E-PAINTERS HAVE ROBERT BOLICK’S NUMBER
The hot-shooting NLEX guard was extinguished by Rain or Shine in shooting 5-of-20 from the field including a horrible 0-of-8 from three-point range to finish with 15 points. He added five rebounds and only managed to issue three assists after leading the league in the same department by the end of the eliminations with a 7.2 average per outing.
5.RR POGOY EVER SO RELIABLE FOR TNT
Misfiring the last time, the Cebuano shooting guard made sure his presence was felt at the start of the playoffs. Pogoy finished with a game-high 30 points including 22 in the second half to preside over TNT’s comeback from 13 points down.
The output was his second most this season after a 34-point production against Meralco last May 12. It’s also the 16th 30-plus career game for the former Far Eastern University standout, who is now just six points shy of reaching the 5,000-point mark, which could come by Saturday in TNT’s do-or-die game against the Hotshots.
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