Quarterfinals game 1 prediction: Bolts and Hotshots are going for the semifinals tickets

Meralco Bolts surprised everyone as they reached the #1 seed for the playoffs. Blackwater Elite will try to make a miracle of upsetting the #1 seed. 

On the other hand, Star Hotshots will try to make an exclamation point of the bright first year of coach Chito Victolero. Coach Yeng Guiao traded for his old cogs to revitalized his team and pushed them into a playoff run.

So, let us put the game 1 of the two series.

#1 Meralco Bolts VS #8 Blackwater Elite

Key Factors
Pace

Rebounding

Michael DiGregorio

Meralco is the slowest team in the league. They want to carve out the defense and create pretty on-point scoring opportunities. One of the key to slow-pace style is rebounding. Meralco is #1 in terms of Rebounding % which measures the percentage of available boards. 

Michael DiGregorio is the kind of scorer that can change the tide of a game. He is a legit sniper this season with 44.3% from beyond the arc. If he heats up, he can put Blackwater on the upper hand.

Prediction

Can Blackwater quicken the pace? I think, they can. And they actually have much bigger size than the Meralco Bolts. Nevertheless, I expect Meralco to force Blackwater into a snail-pace deep into the game and crawl back and win the game. 

#4 Star Hotshots VS #5 NLEX Road Warriors 

Key Factors

Rebounding

Three-point attempts

Turnovers

NLEX is the king of the boards this conference, in terms of rebounds per game average. Aaron Fuller is of course the biggest reason behind with his 18.7 boards per game. On the other hand, NLEX doesn't care about giving three-point attempts to their opponent.

They give the most three-point attempts per game. That means Star can fully take advantage of their decent 34.8% from beyond the arc.

On the other hand, Star is the best in taking care of the ball. The Hotshot guards are pretty good in taking care of the ball. Meaning, they will not waste a lot of possessions.

Prediction

Both coaches used a pretty deep rotations. I expect the rebounding battle to be fierce but NLEX will still control it. With a lot of veterans in the team, NLEX should be able to put the shooters of Star in awkward positions.

Overall, I see NLEX pulling game 1 from Star and pushing it into a do-or-die.