By REYNALD MAGALLON
From the very beginning, the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup has been unpredictable. Some perennial cellar dwelling teams were suddenly in the middle of the pack while some powerhouses seemingly invincible struggled just to keep themselves in the playoff picture.
But in the playoffs, just when everyone thought everything would simply settle down, the situation just got even wilder and the path to the crown now seemingly wider.
Meralco takes on TNT while Ginebra clashes against Rain or Shine as the best-of-five semifinals fires off on Wednesday, May 20 at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.
The Bolts and the Tropang 5G first collide in the opening game at 5:15 p.m. before the Kings and the Elasto Painters lock horns in the main event at 7:30 p.m.
For Ginebra head coach Tim Cone, his team cannot sit on their laurels and be complacent against Rain or Shine, especially against a Yeng Guiao-mentored team
“I just know how hard it is to go up against Yeng Guiao. His teams play the game extremely hard and extremely fast,” Cone said ahead of his chess match against the Elasto Painters mentor
“Coach Yeng is so experienced in all these things. Sometimes, I feel I have a little edge on that time, but not with coach Yeng. We came in the league at the same time and we’ve been coaching the same amount of years. He’s been through it all,” added the multi-titled coach.
And Cone certainly has reasons to be concerned. At one point, ROS was the hottest team in the conference and they just proved that their high-octane offense hasn’t run out of gas when it eliminated San Miguel in the quarterfinals.
Anchored on the versatile import Jaylen Johnson along with the young and feisty core built around Adrian Nocum, Andrei Caracut, Leonard Santillan, Caelan Tiongson and Jhonard Clarito.
Ginebra, though, still has Justin Brownlee, Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar and RJ Abarrientos who has been relishing a breakout conference so far.
Meanwhile in the second game, Bol Bol along with the local crew of Jayson Castro, RR Pogoy and Calvin Oftana seemed to be peaking at the right time after overcoming a twice-to-win disadvantage against NLEX in the quarterfinals.
But that will be put to a stern test against the tough defensive team that is the Bolts who will be leaning on import Marvin Jones and local stars Chris Newsome, CJ Cansino and Bong Quinto.
