Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone was shocked to learn that they will be going up against Magnolia in the quarterfinals of the Philippine Basketball Association.

Cone admitted that they expect to face the Hotshots in the latter part of the season-ending conference, not in the quarterfinals, where they enjoy a twice-to-beat advantage.

Although both playing under the San Miguel Corporation umbrella, the Kings and the Hotshots are considered as the league’s fiercest rivals due to the level of popularity of their past and current players.

With that, sideliners coined the term “Manila Clasico” as a nod to their glorious battles in the past in which the Ginebra squad of Robert Jaworksi engaged in a lot of memorable battles against the Purefoods squad of Alvin Patrimonio, Jerry Codinera and Jojo Lastimosa.

Cone, who led the Purefoods franchise to a rare grand slam in 2014, said he is shocked to know that the “Manila Clasico” will be unfolding as early as the quarterfinals.

“I mean if we could avoid Magnolia, we certainly would’ve. But we couldn’t,” said Cone, who was at ringside as a young Alaska mentor when the “Manila Clasico” was taking place.

“We’re facing them later on in the tournament, not having to knock each other out this early. But you don’t really have control over that.”

The Kings could have avoided an early clash with the Hotshots.

But after a 72-76 loss to NLEX on Sunday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium, Ginebra fell to second place, setting the stage for a quarterfinal duel against Magnolia.

The last time the Kings and the Hotshots faced each other was in the Commissioner’s Cup semifinals in December 2022. Ginebra beat Magnolia, 3-1, to earn the right to face guest team Bay Area Dragons in a

best-of-seven finals series.

Cone said he had to bench swingman Scottie Thompson in the third quarter as well as big man Christian Standhardinger in the fourth period of their game against the Road Warriors to send a statement that they couldn’t simply rely on the two stars.

And it’s something that they can use when they battle the Hotshots.

“Nothing happened to Scottie, nothing happened to Christian. I just needed guys to go out there. Sometimes we rely too much on Christian and Scottie. Guys kind of forget to play on their own,” Cone said.

“It was important for us to get Stanley (Pringle) out there in that stretch. We need Stanley to step up and play that kind of level and we just felt like that was an opportunity to get him out there.”