(c) PBA Media Bureau
The SMC sister teams pushed the MVP brothers to the brink of elimination in round 1. Although there were controversies surrounding those two games, it was still pretty clear that Ginebra and San Miguel were the better teams in those two games.
So, can they continue to dominate the MVP squads?
Ginebra vs Meralco Prediction
The size advantage of Ginebra was pretty obvious in game 1. The guards of Meralco struggled in the fortress that built around the size and length of the bigs of the red squad.
Defensively, Meralco did a good job but if they want to answer back against Ginebra, they need to fix their offense.
On the other hand, Ginebra shortened their rotation to nine players. They did not play Caperal, Jervy Cruz and Caguioa in the game. I think, they at least need to provide some minutes to Caguioa just for his impact on the crowd and in their offense.
Meralco should run more plays around Ranidel de Ocampo, to try and utilize his three-point shooting ability and warp the defense of Ginebra.
At the end though, Slaughter and Tenorio struggled in game 1 and I don't expect that to happen again in game 2.
So, I think Ginebra will finish this series already.
TNT vs San Miguel
TNT will need to recover from the trauma of losing a 23-points lead in a playoff game. San Miguel should be motivated to begin the game in the right way after TNT toyed around their defense and scored 40 points.
One thing that was prevalent in game 1 was the inability of San Miguel to stop Joshua Smith. Fajardo can hold ground but Smith succeeded in getting good shots against him.
San Miguel should not continue to rely upon that they will get 40 free-throws again in this 2nd game.
TNT will play much bigger in game 2 to try and neutralize Balkman and Fajardo so the wings of San Miguel should help them out through taking advantage of driving lanes and knocking down their threes.
I expect Romeo and Castro to shoot better in game 2 and help TNT secure a game 3.
PREDICTION LOG: (2 Corrects, 2 Mistakes)
QF Game 1 TNT vs SMB: SMB Wins
QF Game 1 MER vs BGSM: MER Wins
QF Game 1 ROS vs GLO: ROS Wins
QF Game 1 ACES vs MAG: ALA wins
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