LONG-TIME rivals Barangay Ginebra and Meralco fight for playoff survival in the PBA Season 50 Governors’ Cup on Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
The Gin Kings and the Bolts clash at 7:30 p.m., following the 5:15 p.m. match between Group A leader NLEX and Converge.
The double header marks the final games before the pro league takes a long nine-week break to give way to the Philippine men’s basketball team’s preparation and campaign for the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers and the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Ginebra walloped Meralco, 84-75, when they first met in July 31, and will be shooting for a very important repeat victory as the league’s most popular squad tries to stay afloat for a top 4 spot in the six-team group.
The Gin Kings enter the game occupying the fifth with a 2-3 record.
The Bolts, on the other hand, are at the bottom of Group B with a 2-5 slate.
Ginebra has been playing without resident import Justin Brownlee and Scottie Thompson, and had to rely a lot on stand-in reinforcement Riley Grigsby and sophomore guard RJ Abarrientos in beating the injury-plagued Meralco team in their initial face-off last July 31.
Abarrientos dropped a season-high 27 points on 3-of-5 from threes as he led Ginebra’s first half offensive that allowed the team to pull off the needed victory.
The shifty nephew of PBA great and current Ginebra assistant coach Johnny Abarrientos is aware of the big shoes he needs to fill in the absence of Brownlee and Thompson.
“We lost big pieces and it’s hard to fill up the void they left,” said Abarrientos, the Best Player of the Commissioner’s Cup, which Ginebra ruled last June.
Meanwhile, Converge will try to take advantage of an import-less NLEX in the team’s effort to solidify its playoff chances.
The Road Warriors lost do-it-all import DeQuan Jones to a fractured right leg in the their 118-111 overtime win against TNT last Wednesday.
NLEX goes up against a Converge side that vented its ire against Terrafirma, 120-103, last Tuesday to arrest an alarming four-game skid.
The FiberXers enter the crucial match carrying a 4-4 record, in a tie with the Tropang 5G in Group A.
