Last four standing

It’s every day game day in the PBA until the end of the two best-of-five semifinal pairings in the Governors Cup. Game 1 of the Talk ‘N’ Text-San Mig Coffee duel got the ball rolling at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last night. Tonight, it’s Game 1 of the Alaska-Rain Or Shine battle. They play alternating nights until Tuesday, June 24.

If necessary, Game 4 of the Talk ‘N’ Text-San Mig Coffee series will be on June 25 and Game 5, June 27. If necessary, Game 4 of the Alaska-Rain Or Shine tie will be on June 26 and Game 5, June 28. The finals schedule will be released by PBA commissioner Chito Salud at the end of the semifinals. The latest the best-of-five finals could end is July 9.

Compressing the schedule was meant to speed up the conclusion of the season to allow more training time for the Gilas players. Gilas coach Chot Reyes will set up training camp on July 1 with what could be twice a day practices. The Gilas players still involved in the PBA playoffs at that time will be excused from camp and likely, the FIBA Asia Cup in Wuhan on July 11-19.

There’s obviously a cost to shortening the season. A PBA source said the “sprint” process could mean a loss of attendance revenue of up to P30 Million for the whole campaign. But it’s a sacrifice for flag and country. The PBA Board of Governors has pledged all-out support for Gilas and speeding up the season is a clear indication of that.

With only four teams left standing, the PBA players in the Gilas FIBA-Asia Cup pool now available to practice are JuneMar Fajardo of San Miguel Beer, L. A. Tenorio and Japeth Aguilar of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, Jared Dillinger and Gary David of Meralco and Jay Washington of Globalport. The other PBA players in the pool are Jimmy Alapag, Jayson Castro, Ranidel de Ocampo and Larry Fonacier of Talk ‘N’ Text, Marc Pingris of San Mig Coffee and Gabe Norwood, Jeff Chan, Paul Lee and Beau Belga of Rain Or Shine. Non-PBA players in the pool are naturalized player Marcus Douthit, Kevin Alas, Matt Ganuelas, Garvo Lanete, Jake Pascual and Ronald Pascual.

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Globalport finished at the bottom of the Governors Cup elimination standings with a 1-8 record, the Batang Pier’s only win a 95-91 decision over Alaska. Barako Bull and Meralco were tied for eighth spot with identical 3-6 records but the Energy Cola took the last playoff ticket by virtue of its 95-94 win over the Bolts.

Five teams posted 5-4 records to tie for third place. The playoff seedings were determined by the quotient system with Alaska at No. 3 with +26, San Mig Coffee at No. 4 with +5, San Miguel Beer at No. 5 with +1, Barangay Ginebra at No. 6 with -10 and Air21 at No. 7 with -22. Rain Or Shine took second spot with a 6-3 mark and the Tropa topped the ladder with a 7-2 slate.

The five-team logjam reflected the tight race to earn playoff slots. It also showed competitive balance among most of the teams in the league. Globalport is the exception as the newest kid on the block. Last season, the Batang Pier posted an overall record of 7-31. This season, the record was 7-26 with only one win to show in the Commissioner’s Cup and Governors Cup each.

None of the lower seeds survived the twice-to-beat handicap in the first round of the playoffs. No. 1 Talk ‘N’ Text brushed off No. 8 Barako Bull, 99-84. No. 2 Rain Or Shine took out No. 7 Air21, 111-90. No. 3 Alaska eliminated No. 6 Ginebra, 92-81 and No. 4 San Mig Coffee banished No. 5 San Miguel Beer, 97-90. Before this conference, only 10 lower seed teams survived a twice-to-beat disadvantage in 76 matchups since 1996 so that’s a success rate of only 13.2 percent. The last team to do the trick was Air21 over San Miguel Beer in the last Commissioner’s Cup. Ginebra has done it thrice – beating Mobiline in 1999, Purefoods in 2001 and Rain Or Shine in 2013.

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Only the top four seeds are left in contention. Before Game 1 last night, the Texters had a 4-1 record with Paul Harris in harness. Harris took over from Rodney Carney who had taken over from Othyus Jeffers. In the eliminations, Talk ‘N’ Text beat San Mig Coffee, 92-88. The Mixers were in skid row before stunning San Miguel Beer in the playoffs. Coach Tim Cone’s squad lost three of its last four to close out the eliminations on a sour note. Both Harris and San Mig Coffee’s Marqus Blakely are do-it-all imports. Harris has a sharper perimeter game but Blakely is stronger within 10 feet of the basket. Cone’s pick-and-roll defense is tough to crack. The Mixers switch, trap and hedge hard. It makes dribble-drive penetrations a little more difficult to do. But Texters coach Norman Black has a lot of weapons to unleash depending on what the defense shows. It’ll be a dog-fight for sure and the series could go the distance. San Mig Coffee is on course to capture a Grand Slam and the Texters are out to play spoilers.

Rain Or Shine and Alaska are both on hot streaks. The Elasto Painters have won six in a row and the Aces, four straight. Coach Alex Compton’s motivation is redemption while coach Yeng Guiao is simply looking to duplicate Painters’ 123-72 demolition of the Aces in the eliminations. That 51-point setback fired up Alaska to rebound in a big way and since the humbling, the Aces have defeated San Mig Coffee, 93-84, Ginebra, 79-66, Barako Bull, 90-87 and Ginebra again, 92-81.

Alaska import Henry Walker, a four-year NBA veteran with the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks, still has to unravel his entire bag of tricks and that’s scary. His high basketball IQ has taken the Aces to a higher level and that’s what Compton hopes to lean on to get by Rain Or Shine. But the Painters’ Arizona Reid, a one-time Best Import awardee, knows what it takes to survive in the PBA. This is his third PBA conference and he feels it’s his time to shine.

Imports stoppers will have their hands full in both series and matchups will be intriguing. If the semifinals are bound to be chillers, expect the finals to be even more thrilling. More often than not, a sprint brings out more surprises than a marathon.