New twist in PBA elims

The PBA Commissioner’s Cup resumes this Wednesday with a double header that will kick off a five game-day schedule and test the depth of the team lineups with the league’s top stars temporarily leaving their respective squads to join the Gilas Pilipinas national five.

While the Nationals seriously begin their short but intense buildup for the Seaba (Southeast Asia Basketball Association) basketball championship that the country will host May 12 to 18 under coach Chot Reyes, their teammates also sweat it out hoping to boost their respective bids to reach the quarterfinal round of the league’s second tournament this season.

It’s going to be an interesting schedule with unbeaten leader San Miguel Beer (5-0) taking on TNT KaTropa (5-2) on May 5, defending champion Rain or Shine (4-3) meeting Star (5-2) on May 6 in Batangas, Barangay Ginebra (4-1) facing Alaska (4-2) on May 7 and Star tangling with TNT on May 10.

Missing these key encounters as Gilas Pilipinas recruits are June Mar Fajardo of SMB, Jason Castro, Troy Rosario and Roger Pogoy of TNT, Raymond Almazan of Rain or Shine, Allein Maliksi and Jio Jalalon of Star, Japeth Aguilar of Ginebra and Calvin Abueva of Alaska. Rounding out the Gilas roster are Terrence Romeo of GlobalPort and Matthew Wright of Phoenix.

GlobalPort (2-5) and Phoenix (3-4) will clash on May 5 with the Batang Pier and the Fuel Masters both scheduled against the 6-1 Meralco Bolts, whose lineup Reyes found no reason to touch when he picked his Gilas players after the second game of the PBA All-Star festivities on Friday in Lucena City. Phoenix duels Meralco this Wednesday while GlobalPort takes its turn against Meralco on May 10.

The tournament then takes another break for the Seaba cagefest where Gilas will be reinforced by naturalized player Andray Blatche to bolster its bid to sweep Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, Burma (Myanmar) and Malaysia and earn a spot in the Fiba Asia Cup this August in Lebanon.

After the Seaba, the Gilas aces will return to their respective teams for the rest of the elimination schedule starting on May 19 and ending on June 2.