BARANGAY Ginebra tries to hold on to a Top Four spot while Terrafirma is desperate to snap out of a four-game slide and keep its playoff hopes from slipping away as the Gin Kings and the Dyip slug it out in another big night at the Ynares Center-Montalban on Saturday.
The Gin Kings are hunting momentum while the Dyip are in search of a skid brake in their 7:30 p.m. clash proceeding the 5:15 p.m. tussle between Titan Ultra and TNT.
It’s midpoint of the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup elims, and both Ginebra and Terrafirma are jockeying for position in the middle of the team standings.
“All these games are really crucial for us just, number one, to get into the playoffs, and we just wanna win as many games as we can and look up at the end of the eliminations and see where we are,” said Ginebra coach Tim Cone.
“We’re in the middle of the standings, but still… I wouldn’t say we’re groping for form but still searching ourselves a little bit at this point,” added Cone whose team currently shares fourth spot with the Tropang 5G at 4-2.
Coach Ronald Tubid and his Terrafirma Dyip are a full game down at joint seventh with Magnolia and San Miguel Beer at 3-4 after having lost all last four games after a 0-3 conference start.
“We need to compete. I told the team that if we compete, then we have more chances of winning,” said Tubid whose crew stumbled with losses to Phoenix, Magnolia, TNT and Rain or Shine after victories over Titan Ultra, Converge and Blackwater.
“We hope to maximize whatever we have and try our best to make the playoffs,” said Tubid.
The Gin Kings have been in “redemption mode” from a tough semis exit last conference.
After splitting their first four assignments, Justin Brownlee and his teammates have built momentum with back-to-back wins over Magnolia and Phoenix.
A win Saturday keeps Ginebra in the thick of the Top Four race, where every game matters for playoff positioning.
And so the bottom line is that Ginebra wants the inside track to the Top Four; Terrafirma wants its season back.
