Christmas Day tiffs focus on Kings, Giants bids

MANILA, Philippines - Barangay Ginebra and Purefoods Tender Juicy, the league’s biggest crowd drawers, take on Coca-Cola and Burger King, respectively, in a special Christmas Day twinbill in the KFC PBA Philippine Cup at the Astrodome today.

The Giants and the Whoppers clash at 3 p.m. then the Kings and the Tigers collide at 5:30 p.m. in the tourney’s final playdate in the year about to end.

All four teams are raring to come out and wage a tough battle in search of a win that could give them the needed boost heading to the homestretch of the double-round elimination phase.

Ginebra and Purefoods, with similar 8-6 win-loss cards, are in pursuit of San Miguel Beer (12-3), Alaska Milk (11-2) and Talk n Text (10-5) in the race for the two outright semifinal berths.

Burger King, with a 5-9 win-loss slate, is still hoping to land at fifth place for an outright quarters seat while Coca-Cola, with a 3-11 record, hopes to gain slot in the wild card plays.

The Whoppers and the Tigers are down in the lower half of the chart but they’re setting out for today’s games riding the momentum of morale-boosting wins the last time out.

Coca-Cola stunned league leader Alaska Milk, 105-92, Sunday while Burger King upended Barako Bull, 102-99, Friday.

Both Ginebra and Purefoods, meanwhile, have lost their last two games.

“Every win counts. All teams are jockeying for spots. We like where we are at this point and we are upbeat on our chances despite the fact that we dropped our last two games,” said Purefoods coach Ryan Gregorio.

“We have to build confidence. If we can get that, we can compete with the best of them,” said BK coach Yeng Guiao.

Barely up on tail-ender Barako Bull, Coca-Cola coach Bo Perasol said all they want at this point is the positive mindset that they can compete with any team.

“We want to be able to compete. Winning is a bonus,” said Perasol.

The Tigers are back in the prowl with Asi Taulava returning from a long layoff.

Taulava had a near triple-double game in leading the Tigers past the Aces.

The Tigers are slugging it out with the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters (4-10) and the Barako Bull Energy Boosters (2-12) to avoid last place which means outright elimination.