Trillo says he and his Bolts want this matchup with Kings, who they figure they’d still have to deal with down the line anyway

Meralco and Barangay Ginebra are set to renew their rivalry in the first round of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup playoffs when they lock horns in a best-of-three series beginning this week.

The fifth-seeded Bolts have not exactly sustained the momentum of their conquest over the Gin Kings in the last Philippine Cup semifinals, where they eventually emerged champions. They have, in fact, lost the last four encounters with the crowd darlings, including an all-important contest here last Wednesday which consequently hurt their bid for a twice-to-beat perk going into the quarterfinals.

Yet somehow, head coach Luigi Trillo is taking a positive—even confident—outlook going into their showdown.

“We wanted this,” Trillo told reporters shortly after the 129-92 drubbing suffered at the hands of Magnolia at PhilSports Arena in Pasig City on Friday night, which was a mere formality given that they were already penciled to take on Ginebra in the quarterfinals.

Mitchell will be back

“I know we’re 0-4 right now [against them], including the last one. But we wanted this. We’re going to go through Ginebra, anyway, whether it’s now or later.”

To understand Trillo’s perspective, one has to look at the composition of the Bolts that competed in the team’s last two defeats. In both instances, import Akil Mitchell was out nursing a bum back.

The math around that, Trillo said, shows that the Bolts are immensely better with their import.

“You look at the injuries [that shelved] Akil and we’re 7-2 throughout those games. We could’ve easily been 9-2,” the champion coach pointed out.

“We also have that one game against TNT where we lost by [two]. The only loss we’ve had with Akil was against Converge when we came back from [an East Asia Super League match in South]Korea, and we had some [players] who became sick and four of our [veteran] guys were coming back in,” he added.

“These past two games, had Akil been there, I think we’d have performed better,” he went on. “[And] if we won these [last two], we would’ve been No. 1. But it is what it is now. The blessing is we have four or five days before that first [quarterfinals] game.”

As optimistic as he was, Trillo emphasized that he was just as cautious of the No. 4-ranked Gin Kings, who, aside from being on the favorable end of a head-to-head streak, are also enjoying the cohesion of a well-constructed roster nearing full strength.

“With everything said and done, Ginebra has been playing well. That’s an all-star team,” Trillo said of the Kings.

“You all have seen what they’ve added—superstars all around. Quality stuff. [Troy] Rosario. [Jamie] Malonzo’s back,” Trillo explained. “And the dynamics they have between [Stephen] Holt and [RJ] Abarrientos that got us swept [recently]? We’re excited for it.

“Ginebra-Meralco, it’s always a quality series,” Trillo went on. “It’s 0-0 again and that’s planted in our heads. We know we have the capability to win games.”