SMB faces rough road

MANILA, Philippines — Defending champion San Miguel Beer is sitting on pins and needles as it awaits its fate in the final stretch of PBA Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals chase.

At 5-7, the Beermen lurk outside the Magic 8 at No. 10 with two playdates left in the elimination stage and two rivals for the last playoffs ticket – NLEX (5-6) and Magnolia (5-6) – in position to hand them the boot in their next assignments this week.

The Road Warriors will try to boost their Last-8 drive with their sixth win tomorrow against Hong Kong Eastern (7-4) at the Smart Araneta Coliseum while the Hotshots will seek the same versus Meralco (7-3) on Friday at the PhiSports Arena.

A victory by both NLEX and Magnolia will set them up for a KO for No. 8 while sending SMB to the exits alongside Blackwater (3-9), Phoenix (3-9) and Terrafirma (1-11).

If one wins and the other loses, the winner will catch the last bus to the post-elims while the loser will join the Beermen on early vacation.

But if both the Road Warriors and the Hotshots fall, a triple tie for eighth will ensue and the troops of coach Leo Austria, thanks to a superior quotient (1.0120), will get to face NLEX (1.0051) in a rubber match for eighth while the Hotshots (0.9833) will bow out.

The Beermen, who conceded a crucial 115-97 setback to TNT last Sunday, are hoping to avoid becoming the first team in 20 years to miss the playoffs in its title retention campaign.

The last titleholder to crash out of the playoffs picture was Barangay Ginebra in the 2005 Fiesta Conference.

As a franchise, SMB last failed to go past the eliminations in the 2015 Commissioners’ Cup, with a 4-7 record.

“There’s still a chance, it might be slim but still a chance, so we’ll see how those results (games of NLEX and Magnolia) go,” said SMB sniper Marcio Lassiter, whose team has struggled to find a suitable import for the mid-season tournament.