Kings fancied to reach Final Four

MANILA, Philippines – Barangay Ginebra is back as a top title contender with the Kings settling down after a struggling start and securing fourth playoff seeding on a three-game romp at the close of the Smart Bro PBA Philippine Cup eliminations.

With the momentum, Ginebra looms as a solid bet to make it all the way to the Final Four from among the teams going through a cutthroat two-phase quarterfinal stage.

The Gin Kings are with the Star Hotshots, the Globalport Batang Pier and the Barako Bull Energy in a bracket where the survivor faces top seed Alaska Milk in a best-of-seven semifinal.

Third ranked Rain Or Shine is with Blackwater, Talk n Text and NLEX in the other group where the winner is moving to the semis versus second seed San Miguel Beer.

Playoff action fires off on Christmas Day at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City, with Ginebra and Globalport taking their first of two cracks in Stage Two of the quarterfinals versus Star and Barako Bull, respectively.

The next day, Rain Or Shine and TNT go for the kill opposite lower-ranked rivals Blackwater and NLEX, respectively.

If any of the lower seeds are able to win on Friday and Saturday, knockout battles are set Sunday and Monday.

Then another knockout face-offs will determine which teams are joining Alaska and San Miguel in the semifinals.

No. 7 NLEX, No. 8 Barako Bull, No. 9 Star and No. 10 Blackwater need to win three KO matches to snatch a spot in the Final Four.

A big treat to the fans is the marquee Ginebra-Star matchup on Christmas Day.

Greg Slaughter and his teammates arranged that showdown as they beat the Texters in their duel for fourth playoff spot Sunday.     

“At one point in the tourney, we’re at 1-3, and we finished all the way to fourth place. I have to applaud our guys for that,” said Ginebra coach Tim Cone.

“The reward is we’ve got to play Star, my ex-team which is really, really hard. They handled us so easily the first time we played them. Hopefully, we are a better team and we understand a little bit more what we want to do,” Cone also said.

The two-time grand slam champion coach knows from experience that a twice-to-beat advantage is not a guarantee a team would make the next round.

He remembered his first conference with Star where they were ambushed by lower-ranked rival Powerade.

And Cone insists James Yap and his teammates are tough to handle.

“Those Purefoods players, obviously, know how to play in the playoffs. They know how to get themselves ready for the playoffs. Of all the teams out there, I think they’re the toughest team because they are veterans and they know how to play and they can put a couple of really good games together,” he said.

“I’m not looking forward to it at all. But they’re a team in our way and we’re in their way. We both want to go out there and win. I love the Purefoods guys dearly. But at this point they’re in our way and we’ve got to find a way to beat them and they’re going to do the same thing to us. At this point right now, there is no love lost between us,” he also said.