Old foes Kings, Bolts start QF showdown

Games today:

(Ninoy Aquino Stadium)

5 p.m. — Meralco vs Ginebra

7:30 p.m. — San Miguel vs Converge

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s reason for tapping Joe Devance out of retirement goes beyond plugging its depleted frontline for the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup playoffs.

The 42-year-old veteran big man’s comeback serves as added fuel to the Kings’ charge when they face a familiar foe in Meralco in Game 1 of their best-of-five quarterfinals series today at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.

“We’ll see what happens,” Kings head coach Tim Cone said, hoping that the “happy-go-lucky” big man will give them additional defensive muscles following the absence of injured slotman Isaac Go in their 5 p.m. battle.

“Maybe it will be magical or maybe not. But in any case, it’s great to have him back. His game extends so much more beyond the court. He does everything behind the scenes, he’s a great chemistry guy, a great communicator. He comes off as happy-go-lucky but if you know him well he has a real, deep competitive spirit within him. We expect that to happen.”

Ginebra won six of its 10 games in the pool stage to emerge as the third seed and gain the chance to challenge Meralco — the team that it defeated in four editions of the Governors’ Cup finals series.

Meralco, on the other hand, finished second in Group A with a 7-3 slate.

Another interesting side story in the latest chapter of the rivalry is the fourth meeting of Ginebra’s resident import Justin Brownlee and Meralco’s battle-tested reinforcement Allen Durham.

Brownlee may have had the numbers of Durham in three hard-fought Governors’ Cup finals series in 2016, 2017 and 2019 but the Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player knows it won’t be an easy task bringing down the reigning Philippine Cup champions.

“Everybody knows we have a history. They’re a tough team and they’ve obviously gotten better and they’re a champion team now. We know they’re gonna be tough defensively like always,” Brownlee said.

“With Durham as import, he always elevates their game. So, we know they’re gonna be ready. Hopefully, we’ll get ourselves ready for those guys. And you know, coach Tim will have a great game plan ready.”

Actually, the Bolts have bettered the Kings in their last two playoffs meetings in the 2022 Philippine Cup quarterfinals and the recent all-Filipino edition in a dramatic come-from-behind best-of-seven semifinals series.

But Meralco head coach Luigi Trillo doesn’t look at his team’s previous results as the basis of their chances of making a series win repeat over Ginebra.