Crippled Meralco guns for solo lead

Games today:

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)

5 p.m. — Converge vs Meralco

7:30 p.m. — NorthPort vs Magnolia

Banged-up Meralco goes for a third straight win and a taste of the solo lead in Group A as it battles Converge in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Tipoff is set at 5 p.m. with the Bolts seeking to end the first half of the double-round robin pool play on a winning note.

Meanwhile, Magnolia and NorthPort clash in the 7:30 p.m. nightcap with both eyeing a third win in Group A.

Despite being plagued by various illnesses and bitten by the injury bug, the Bolts behind the consistently solid performance of import Allen Durham continue to march toward securing a spot in the playoffs.

Shorthanded but not short in talent, the Philippine Cup champion made do with the available players they had in their first four outings to tie sister team defending champion TNT on top with identical 3-1 win-loss slates.

A fitter and better Durham carried Meralco in its conquest of NorthPort, 109-99, last Sunday amid a slew of player absences while some were forced to play limited minutes as a precaution.

Chris Newsome did return in the Bolts’ latest win from a sprained left ankle and knee that had him sidelined for one game.

The Gilas Pilipinas guard is expected to help Durham along with Chris Banchero, Bong Quinto and a reliable bench mob led by Anjo Caram, rookie CJ Cansino and Kyle Pascual.

However, Meralco will continue to miss Aaron Black and Allein Maliksi due to knee injuries that could sideline them for at least a month while big man Raymond Almazan is day-to-day after suffering from knee pains on top of back problems that kept him from suiting up in the import-laced conference.

Backups Raymar Jose and Norbert Torres, who went down with dengue, won’t be around while Cliff Hodge, who played in the last game but had to be pulled out as his back acted up after just seven minutes of action.

“Right now, we’re just an injured group. You know, no Allein, no AB, no Raymond, no Cliff. So, we just have to find a way to win,” Meralco coach Luigi Trillo said.

“Moving forward it’s gonna be a tough stretch for us. We have Converge and Magnolia. At this point, we just have to make sure that we take care of them healing-wise and focus on some other guys getting comfortable. They’re having minutes now that we have a lot of players out.”

Durham also knows that the Bolts will need a collective effort to hold the line.

“We’re still not at full force. I still gotta get back in shape. Then we have four or five guys out. And even when they’re ready to play we gotta give them time to get to the flow of things, to jell,” he said.

“We’re still a long way away but our goal is to maintain and get as many wins as possible.”

Converge, on the other hand, is in a three-way tie with the Hotshots and Batang Pier with 2-2 slates.

The FiberXers are still grappling for consistency after switching on and off in their first four outings.

Converge suffered a 109-135 drubbing at the hands of NorthPort last Thursday in a match that saw them allow Batang Pier forward Arvin Tolentino to drop 51 points.

Magnolia, meanwhile, tries to start a winning streak after beating Terrafirma, 124-103, last Sunday.