SMB, MAGNOLIA STEP UP BID FOR PLAYOFFS BONUS

STILL unbeaten after eight games, San Miguel Beer (SMB) now pushes further when it goes for another victory against NLEX to formally secure a Top 2 seeding heading to the playoffs as the PBA Season 48 Philippine Cup elimination round heads to the final stretch on Sunday at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.

The Beermen marched to their eighth straight win after vanquishing the Magnolia Hotshots, 98-91, on Friday in their first encounter since SMB beat its sister team, 4-2, in the Commissioner's Cup title series last February.

SMB faces NLEX in their 6:15 p.m. collision, preceding the match between Magnolia (5-3) and Meralco (4-5) at 3 p.m., where a win or a loss has serious playoff implications.

"This (NLEX) is also a team that's going for the twice-to-beat advantage," said SMB coach Jorge Gallent. "It's good we won now [versus Magnolia], but now we have our foot there, we'll just think of NLEX on Sunday because that's a team that also wants to get the twice-to-beat advantage."

The Road Warriors enter the game with a 5-3 record, tied with the Hotshots for a share of third to fourth spots in the standings.

The team of coach Frankie Lim has lost its last two games, a narrow 104-101 decision to TNT in Candon City in Ilocos, before getting whacked by Phoenix, 112-77, in one of the franchise's worst-ever defeats in its history.

Still, the past is past, and Lim simply wants his charges to focus on what's right in front of them, hoping that the Road Warriors will be able to come out with a strong performance against the rampaging Beermen.

San Miguel has been steady throughout this conference, and with three games to go in its elims schedule, sweeping the preliminaries could also be a good motivation.

So far, San Miguel's ongoing 8-0 start puts the league's winningest squad on course to tying TNT's feat a decade ago when the Tropang Giga went undefeated for 13 games back in the 2014 Commissioner's Cup.

As for the Hotshots, they will just have to leave behind their seven-point loss to the Beermen and quickly make a turnaround against the Bolts.

Meralco is coming off a narrow 82-76 win over Phoenix to move up to solo eighth in the standings with its 4-5 record.

2024-04-27T18:26:55Z dg43tfdfdgfd