PBA: Mercado to miss rest of the conference due to shoulder injury

Sol Mercado's Commissioner's Cup campaign is apparently over. With three games still in GlobalPort's schedule, the point guard decided to heed his doctor's advice and shut down for the rest of this conference due to an injured rotator cuff. "I was supposed to sit out this game against Meralco," Mercado said. "But I asked my doctor to allow me to play." The GlobalPort Batang Pier started the Commissioner's Cup with a 2-1 win-loss record and they looked like a team that could compete with any other squad in the league. However, things turned sour for them. They now have lost eight games in a row and are at the bottom of the standings with a 2-9 record. Making it to the next stage of the competition will prove to be very difficult for them as they need to sweep their remaining three games and hope one of the teams touting a 5-5 record lose all of theirs. Even if he was bothered by a bad shoulder, Mercado still managed a decent game Wednesday, in a 103-92 loss to the Meralco Bolts, with 11 points, two rebounds, and four steals. He played 32 minutes and graduated from the game with six fouls. "It's on my shooting arm so it's really hard for me to shoot," Mercado said, which explains why Mercado took a lot of lay-ups left-handed in their past few games. "I want to play on but my doctor said that I needed to rest it completely for two weeks or else it might become worse so that's what I'll do." If Mercado indeed sits out, then it'll be up to AJ Mandani and Willie Miller to run the show for the struggling GlobalPort squad. Mercado had been acquired during the offseason from the Meralco Bolts, coming over to the Batang Pier along with Kelly Nabong, Yousif Aljamal and Jaypee Belencion, in exchange for Rey Guevarra, Vic Manuel and Josh Vanlandingham, plus a 2015 first round pick. - RAF, GMA News