Tim Cone got his wish and the foe Barangay Ginebra will face in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup’s Final Four will be quite weary after Friday night.
TNT KaTropa and Meralco tangle in the rubber match of their best-of-three quarterfinal series for the right to play the top-seeded Gin Kings in the semifinals and the 7 p.m. game at Smart Araneta Coliseum will certainly take something out of the Texters and the Bolts.
“I wish they go to a Game 3 and play triple overtime,” Cone had said earlier in the week after following San Miguel Beer to the Final Four. “But either team will be a tough match for us because of their huge imports.”
“It will be a dogfight,” Meralco coach Norman Black said on Wednesday night after a 103-100 overtime decision of the Texters that forged this KO match. “We just have to be ready because they are a very talented team.”
Meralco carved out the win despite not having an import in the last 1:54 of regulation, surviving after going scoreless for the last six minutes or so of the fourth.
The Texters, meanwhile, will be trying to avoid a repeat of an upset loss to the Bolts in the Governors’ Cup last season, when Allen Durham spearheaded Meralco to its first title series appearance which many believe cost Jong Uichico his coaching job at TNT.
And the Texters and the Bolts grinding it out one final time sits perfectly well with Cone, who is wary of facing either team because of their huge imports who can pose matchup problems for Ginebra in the best-of-five series.
San Miguel, the No. 2 seed, and Star, the third-ranked squad, already sealed their places in the Final Four and will play Game 1 Saturday at 5 p.m. also at the Big Dome in Cubao.
That means whoever wins between the Texters and the Bolts will return to action in less than two days, tangling with the Gin Kings at 6:30 p.m. for their series opener on Sunday.
Alex Stepheson will have to watch out for his fouls and definitely avoid a repeat of his Game 2 exit, as the Bolts might not be as lucky this time around.
The Bolts get their inspiration and confidence from their man-mountain of an import, who doesn’t really score a lot but goes after all those rebounds and changes practically every shot in the shaded lane.
He had just seven points in Game 2, and his last foul, a silly nudge on Kelly Williams in a rebound play, almost ended the Bolts’ season on Wednesday night.
Kelly Nabong literally filled in Stepheson’s shoes, shooting seven points in overtime to bail the Bolts out. He will definitely be in the TNT defensive radar for this game.