Talk ‘N Text eyes top 2 incentive

MANILA, Philippones—Talk N’ Text guns for a top two slot Tuesday when the Tropang Texters, walking wounded and all, battle nemesis Petron Blaze as the elimination round of the PBA Philippine Cup nears its homestretch at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

A victory in the 7:30 p.m. contest would give the Texters a 10-3 card and one of two twice-to-beat incentives in the quarterfinals.

A Petron victory, however, would create a three-way tie for No. 1  among the Boosters, the Texters and the  B-Meg Llamados, who had earlier made it to 9-4 following a seven-game winning streak.

The idle Llamados have lightweight Shopinas.com as a last foe and they are expected to close out the elimination round with a 10-4 card like the Boosters  if they  win against the Texters.

If Talk ‘N Text loses tonight, the Texters must prevail over crowd-darling Barangay Ginebra this week to stay in that three-way tie, which would be broken via the PBA quotient to determine the No. 1 team with the next two clashing for the No. 2 ranking.

The quarterfinal cast was completed on Saturday when Alaska fell to Talk ‘N Text , making the Powerade-Barako Bull match at 5:15 p.m. just for the rankings in the  playoffs.

At 5-8, the Tigers made the quarterfinals for the first time in eight conferences and will play either the No. 1 or No. 2 squad, needing to win two straight to advance.

The Energy have some sort of chance to make it to a best-of-three series, but they need to win their last two outings to be able to forge a playoff for the No. 6 spot and draw the No. 3 team.

Shopinas, who can establish a mark in futility with a loss to B-Meg on Thursday, is the other squad that will take an early Christmas break.