PBA cracks whip

GREG Slaughter of Ginebra goes for a dunk during their Game 1 of their Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup best-of-seven finals showdown with San Miguel Beer at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. The Kings won, 127-99. ROMAN PROSPERO The Philippine Basketball Association penalized players involved in separate altercations that marred Game 2 of the Commissioner’s Cup best-of-seven finals between Ginebra and San Miguel.

Beermen Arwind Santos and Renaldo Balkman was fined P5,000 each after being meted flagrant foul penalty 1 while Chris Ross was given P2,600 penalty due to two technical fouls that led to his ejection.

Santos, who was also tossed out of the match, was initially handed flagrant foul penalty 2 due to a shoulder hit on Scottie Thompson, but it was downgraded to penalty 1 upon review of the PBA technical committee.

With that, he escaped being suspended and would be available for Game 3 today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Meanwhile, Ginebra forward Kevin Ferrer and Joe Devance were hit with P1,000 penalty for second motion during the action-packed Game 2.