The last four teams standing are all aiming for a head start as the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup semifinals get underway later in Antipolo.
Game 1 of both the best-of-7 series tips off at 5:15 PM at the Ynares Center, with reigning champions TNT and Meralco squaring off in an all-MVP showdown.
The Casino Plus sportsbook says that the Tropang 5G are the favorites to win by -5.0 points, mainly because of the historic comeback they pulled off against the top-seeded NLEX in the recent quarterfinals.
The over/under for the contest is set at 195.0.
Coach Chot Reyes and his charges became just the fifth team to overcome a twice-to-win disadvantage en route to the Final Four, punctuated by an 118-112 victory in their do-or-die last Saturday behind another balanced attack.
That gives Bol Bol and the rest of the squad more confidence entering the semis, but the Bolts are no pushovers. Meralco found its mojo after surviving a ‘long’ playoff series against budding rival Magnolia.
Meralco suffered back-to-back losses to the Hotshots from the final day of the eliminations to their first QF encounter, which put their conference in danger. But it recovered just in time and pulled off the 105-102 result in the KO game.
Plus, the mental edge is on the side of Coach Luigi Trillo and his men, having beaten the Tropa early in the preliminaries, 110-106, last April 7.
An added push for the Bolts was the Season 50 Philippine Cup semis, where they lost to their sister team in five games.
(C) PBA Images
Ginebra and Rain or Shine will take the floor at 7:30 PM, with the crowd darlings hoping to continue their mastery of the latter.
The Kings dealt the Elasto Painters a 114-90 beating last May 3 at the SMART Araneta Coliseum by knocking down 21 threes. And they’ll want to be in the same form when they open their race-to-four affair.
That, plus their quick work against Phoenix in the quarterfinals, makes them a favorite to win by -3.5 points, according to the Casino Plus sportsbook. The over/under is set at 209.5 as of 3 p.m.
But Coach Tim Cone is wary of another chess match with Yeng Guiao, whose RoS has been enjoying a renaissance that’s made them one of the most-watched teams in this midseason joust.
They did finish the eliminations shakily after a 7-0 start, but confidence is sky-high again after eliminating San Miguel, 113-104, to make good use of their win-once playoff incentive — just as Ginebra did.
Wagers for both games can be made here: https://www.casinoplus.com.ph/home/inGame?name=basketball&title=SportBet.
