Tight finish on both ends for Commissioner’s Cup

Five teams remain in contention for the top two positions while three squads are clinging to slim hopes of making it to the last two berths still up for grabs going into the final week of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup elimination round.

Riding a four-game winning streak, Star shows the way—in a tie with Barangay Ginebra—with a win-loss record of 8-2 going into its final game against Alaska this Wednesday.

Philippine Cup champion San Miguel Beer occupies solo second at 7-2.

TNT KaTropa is in third place at 8-3 while Meralco follows at 7-4.

Meanwhile, Alaska is struggling to make it outright to the quarterfinals at 4-6, the same card of GlobalPort.

Phoenix is hoping that both Alaska and GlobalPort drop their  final assignments to reach the playoffs via the quotient system.

It finished at 4-7  courtesy of an unexpected 116-114 loss from resurgent but long out-of-it NLEX last week.

If Star beats Alaska and winds up with a 9-2 slate, SMB has a good chance  of tying the  leading mark since it has only lowly Blackwater and GlobalPort as its last two rivals.

Ginebra will finish its schedule against Mahindra this Friday and after beating Meralco, 90-89, in Sunday’s main game, boosted its bid as it is now tied for first.

TNT slipped past  defending champion Rain or Shine, already assured of a playoff spot at 5-5,  in Sunday’s opening game, 105-102. It has a chance at making the top two if some of the leaders drop their remaining matches.

As in the Philippine Cup, the two top teams after the eliminations will enjoy a twice-to-beat bonus against the last two  qualifiers—No. 7 and No. 8—in the quarterfinals.

The other playoff pairings will pit No. 3 against No. 6 and No. 4 against No. 5 in separate best-of-three series.

The quarterfinal survivors then advance to the best-of-five semifinals.

The lone playoff game will be used only to break a two-way tie for No. 8. If Alaska and GlobalPort prevail in their final games, Phoenix will get the boot while the Aces and the Batang Pier will play off to decide the final placings in the eliminations.

But if both lose, they will meet again to decide No. 8 since Phoenix will automatically get the No. 7 slot under the quotient system, having beaten both teams early in the eliminations.

Alaska, runner-up here last year,  had a 4-0 start before  a four-game tumble, capped by a 109-97 rout from San Miguel on Saturday, when the Aces missed the injured Gilas Pilipinas mainstay Calvin Abueva and starter JV Casio.

What hurt most for Alaska was its 100-92 loss to NLEX,  which ended its nine-game losing run on Wednesday.

The Road Warriors trailed by 20 points in the first quarter before pulling through despite import Wayne Chism fouling out midway in the last quarter.

GlobalPort won only one of its first six games before salvaging three of its next four outings, including a  94-86 decision of Meralco and a 107-101 win over Rain or Shine.

By upending the Fuel Masters as well, the Road Warriors gained some level of respect while ending up last so far at

2-9 behind fellow also-rans Blackwater (2-8) and Mahindra (3-7).