Top eight

An eventful elimination round in the season-ending Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup hit its conclusion on Sunday, producing a worthy top eight that would slug it out in the quarterfinals.

Save for one team which advanced with a losing record, the rest of the quarterfinal players have all earned their keep and deserving of their spots.

Eliminated from the race early were the Alaska Aces, GlobalPort Batang Pier, Phoenix Petroleum Fuel Masters and Kia Picanto, which finished ninth to 12^th place, respectively.

If you happened to have followed the elimination round, that these teams got booted out first is no surprise to you.

Alaska extended a major slump that dated back to the previous conference and just could not recover from it; GlobalPort never found the consistency it was searching for throughout its campaign; Phoenix had an about-face of a telling kind after a promising start; and Kia, well, it went winless throughout.

In the top eight are no. 1 seeds Meralco Bolts, TNT KaTropa, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings, Star Hotshots, NLEX Road Warriors, San Miguel Beermen, Rain or Shine Elasto Painters and Blackwater Elite.

The Bolts, KaTropa, Kings and Hotshots have a twice-to-beat advantage over their lower-seeded opponents in the quarterfinals, which began yesterday.

Meralco is the no. 1 seed because it wanted to. Finishing with a 9-2 record in the eliminations, the lone team to have done so in the conference, the Bolts made their intentions all along known.

This was further highlighted by how they showed much determination in clawing their way back from as much as 18 points down at one point to pull the rug from under San Miguel on the final game of the classification phase to claim the top spot and kick the Beermen out of the top four.

Scary still, Meralco may not be done conquering especially with arguably the best import out there right now in Allen Durham in tow.

TNT (8-3) finished second and deservingly so. It finished the eliminations with four straight victories and was actually on track to end up at first until Meralco got win no. 9.

Where the KaTropa are at is not bad at all considering the shaky start they had and how import Glen Rice Jr. has proven himself to be a game-changer as the tournament progressed.

The Gin Kings (8-3) slid to number three because of a lower quotient vis-à-vis TNT.

Their fans might have felt some disappointment over where their favorite team wound up especially after winning seven straight matches but the 1-2 record the defending champs had in their last three games proved telling and they just have to own up to it and deliver.

Star (7-4) took the backdoor to move inside the top four but it cannot definitely be accused of just being lucky because it made things happen as seen in its 3-1 record in its last four games.

NLEX (7-4) had it strong to start the conference, winning five of its first six games before going 2-3 the rest of the way, including losing its last two, to falter as the eliminations drew to a close.

No time to rue for the Road Warriors though as their room for error is very little in the quarterfinals.

Relegated to the number six, the Grand Slam aspirations of the Beermen (7-4) are surely in peril as they face a twice-to-win handicap against defending champion Barangay Ginebra no less.

But the Beermen only have themselves to blame as they had a good shot at winding up in the top two but just could not complete things against Meralco last time around.

Nevertheless, the Beermen are battle-tested and deep and may actually give the Kings a run for their money in the playoffs, if not pull off the upset altogether.

Rain or Shine (7-4) had it up and down for much of the eliminations but firmed up in the wind up to throw itself convincingly in the playoff mix. The E-Painters present a good challenge to the KaTropa if you are to ask me.

Blackwater (5-6) is back in the PBA playoffs for the first time after a four-conference absence.

The Elite are still surrendering some things here and there to the other teams but they are highly improved and dangerous with import Henry Walker and newly acquired Allein Maliksi leading.

Considering where the quarterfinal combatants came from, the next round of the ongoing PBA tournament should be an interesting one. All deserving teams, it is going to be a battle.

Michael Angelo S. Murillo has been a columnist since 2003. He is a BusinessWorld reporter covering the Sports beat.

msmurillo@www.bworldonline.com