San Miguel’s road to its second straight PBA Governors’ Cup title begins on Friday as the second seed look to put the road spikes against NLEX at 4:15pm at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Defending two-time MVP June Mar Fajardo will lead the Beermen, who have a twice-to-beat advantage, over the Red Warriors whom they narrowly beat in the eliminations with a 94-93 victory.
Just a single Beermen win against the Red Warriors in the quarterfinals will send them to the semifinals, and would give Fajardo, a potential, third straight MVP plum.
Friday’s second game at 7 p.m. pits crowd darling Barangay Ginebra San Miguel against the Alaska Aces.
Ginebra, the third seed in the Governors’ Cup, has a twice-to-beat advantage but Calvin Abueva and the Aces will try to spoil the party and extend Ginebra’s eight-year title drought.
Mahindra will look to knock off fourth seed Meralco on its first playoff appearance on Saturday at Ynares Sports Center in Antipolo.
Import James White and the Enforcers will face a Bolts team that beat them twice in a span of 10 days, once in the eliminations and the other in a playoff for the fourth seed.
Mahindra, however, needs to win two games in the playoffs to advance to the semifinals.
Standing in league-leading TNT KaTropa’s way is Phoenix, which edged out perennial Rain or Shine for the eight seed.
The Texters were head and shoulders above everyone else in the eliminations of the Governors’ Cup with an impressive 10-1 record and a resounding 104-92 beatdown of Ginebra to finish of their schedule.
And if history repeats itself, the KaTropa looks to have no lingering problems against the 5-6 Fuel Masters after coming away with a 124-117 win during their elimination round matchup.