Phl Cup Semis: Pair of Winner-Take-All Duels this Wednesday....

Tomorrow, two all important knockout matches will be played at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City between Rain or Shine (#5) and Powerade (#8) in the opener and Talk ‘N Text (#2) versus Petron (#3) in the nightcap with the winners advancing to the finals, another best-of-seven affair which starts on Friday.

This after the Elasto Painters won Game 6 via a 112-98 victory against the Tigers while the reigning All-Filipino winners in the Tropang Texters survived another close encounter with the Arwind Santos-led Blaze Boosters to live for another day with a heart-stopping 111-108 triumph in the first game.

Both wins by TNT and ROS reduced their respective race-to-four series battle for the “last dance” into a mere winner-take-all meeting with Petron and Powerade, respectively, to make the first offering of Season 37 of the Philippine Basketball Association worthy of a second look for the best hard-fought conference ever in the history of the pro league.

In the ROS-Powerade semis rivalry, Coach Yeng Guiao’s boys won Game 1 by 17 points last January 4 at the Astrodome as well as Game 4 at the Big Dome via a 110-95 shellacking of the Tigers six days later to tie the series at 2-all. In all, the Elasto Painters won three meetings over Powerade by an average winning margin of 16.3 points.

In contrast, the Tigers of mentor Bo Perasol took Game 2 by eight markers, won Game 3 in overtime, 104-99 and triumphed in Game 5 to the tune of a close 110-108 victory over the Elasto Painters for a not-so convincing 5.0 points-per-game triumph in the series (if compared against ROS!).

For Powerade, main man Gary David has been a revelation in the playoffs after scoring 30+ points in the first six assignments of the Tigers, two versus B-Meg in the quarters and four against ROS in the Final Four. However, his streak was broken in that Game 5 win after he managed to score “only” 28 points for his team.

In the Elasto Painters’ 14-point win last Sunday night which your Sideline Spectator was able to watch live at the Manokan Country right after the 6:30 evening mass at San Sebastian Cathedral, it was evident Rain or Shine was going to emerge triumphant after the Tigers kept them at bay in the third quarter until Jeffrei Chan and Paul Lee caught fire and came to the team’s rescue.

The sweet shooting Chan had a field day in the second half as he buried majority of his booming treys for ROS to orchestrate a break away from a tight ballgame with the Tigers alongside the quintet’s rookie sensation in Lee, big man Ronnie Matias and Gabe Norwood. As for Powerade, David was visibly out of synch in missing easy shots that would have mattered most with only Marcio Lassiter carrying the load for the Tigers in offense.

On the other hand, defending champion Talk ‘N Text survived another game against arch rival Petron to even their own semifinal duel to 3-all and force a do-or-die faceoff in Game 7 with their Governor’s Cup tormentor- the Blaze Boosters, in tomorrow’s main match.

After taking the opening game of the series versus Petron last January 5 at the Astrodome via an 87-83triumph, the Tropang Texters of Coach Chot Reyes yielded the next three meetings with mentor Ato Agustin’s charges by a combined winning margin of only seven points to go down 1-3 and a near early exit before finally recovering and take Game 5 in fashioning out a close 93-91 victory for a 3-2 series deficit.

Then, with their backs against the wall, TNT managed to secure Game 6 with their morale-boosting triumph over Petron last Sunday behind the defensive heroics of former Rookie of the Year winner and the seldom-used Rich Alvarez as well as big man Ranidel de Ocampo and reigning Most Valuable Player Jimmy Alapag’s offense in the absence of the injured Ryan Reyes.

Both deciding matches this Wednesday night are must-see games worthy of an explosive championship billing with the triumphant quintet among TNT and Petron (Clash of the Titans) expected to enjoy the luxury of a huge advantage when it comes to finals experience as compared to the winner between ROS and Powerade (Battle of the “dehados”). But as they say, the ball is round and anything can still happen, much more in the PBA!
Your Sideline Spectator’s fearless forecast: it will be TNT against Rain or Shine for the crown...*

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