MAGNOLIA and Rain or Shine kick off the PBA Philippine Cup playoffs on Sunday.
The Hotshots-Elasto Painters tussle serves as the curtain-raiser in a quarterfinals doubleheader at the Don Honorio Ventura State University gym, which will have the San Miguel-NorthPort series playing in the main game.
The Rain or Shine-Magnolia game is set at 2 p.m. followed by the Beermen-Batang Pier tussle at 4:35 p.m.
Both matchups are best-of-three.
The third-seeded Hotshots are on a roll going to the playoffs, having won their last two outings, capped by a huge 102-92 win over the powerhouse Beermen.
But they lost to the No. 6 Elasto Painters during their lone encounter in the eliminations, 75-72.
Coach Chris Gavina will call the shots for Rain or Shine despite the death of his mother just this week.
June Mar Fajardo, Greg Slaughter face off
Meanwhile, it’s just as even between fourth-seeded San Miguel and No. 5 NorthPort, with the Beermen scoring a close 88-86 win over the Batang Pier in their first meeting on July 25 behind the game-winning basket of former MVP Arwind Santos.
Serving as an interesting sidebar of the series is the matchup between giants June Mar Fajardo and Greg Slaughter, together with the long-time college rivalry between Robert Bolick and CJ Perez.
Other quarterfinalists play on Wednesday with No. 2 Meralco battling seventh seed NLEX, and top seed TnT Tropang Giga against the winner of the Barangay Ginebra-Phoenix sudden-death match.
Both the Tropang Giga and the Bolts enjoy a twice-to-beat advantage.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
