GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
Barangay Ginebra faces NLEX as PBA resumes games after 6-month break
The Philippine Basketball Association's (PBA) 45th season is a day away from its official restart.
After a six-month hiatus, the league is now all set to play again inside its bubble in Clark, Pampanga.
TNT and Alaska will commence the PBA's daily games for the elimination round, while Barangay Ginebra will play the NLEX Road Warriors at 6:45 pm on Sunday.
"We have scheduled games more or less, every other day. So there are no back-to-back games for all the teams," PBA deputy commissioner Eric Castro said during the Philippine Sportswriters Association forum.
"That's what we're trying to avoid. May laro ka ng Monday, so probably you're next game will be either Wednesday or Thursday," he added.
Top four teams at the end of the elimination round will get a twice-to-beat advantage for the quarterfinals. The semis will be a best-of-five series, while the finals is still a best-of-seven affair.
The season's only game played before the halt, between Magnolia and San Miguel, is already accounted for in the league records.
No Greg Slaughter for Ginebra
Barangay Ginebra will enter the season without its big man Greg Slaughter.
Slaughter announced in February that he will "take a break" as his contract expired. He then went back to the United States and continued his basketball training.
Ginebra head coach Tim Cone, in a podcast interview in July, admitted he has no idea of the big man's basketball plans.
Days after Cone's statement, Slaughter announced he signed with BeoBasket, a sports agency handling the careers of some NBA players such as Nikola Jokic.
In a recent post, Slaughter announced he is back home. He met with former teammate Japeth Aguilar before the latter went to the bubble.
For Cone, Ginebra may be one of the favorites to win the title inside the bubble, but he admitted the setup is a little different.
"We're looking to have the edge that we can get. But Yeng [Guiao] is right, there are so many unknowns at this point," Cone said in a report on the PBA website.
"It's really difficult. It's hard to say in this unique situation which nobody has experienced before," NLEX head coach Yeng Guiao said.
Games will be played at the Angeles University Foundation gym, a short trip away from the team quarters in Quest Hotel. —Justin Kenneth Carandang/MGP, GMA News
