The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel will put their win streak on the line when they face off against the Meralco Bolts in Manila this Wednesday. Both teams sport identical 4-3 records which adds even more flavor to this already tasty matchup.
Catch this game live on Wednesday, July 5 at 7:30 pm, Manila time.
Barangay Ginebra San Miguel (4-3)
Projected Starting Five:
- PG: John Pinto
- SG: Jeremiah Gray
- SF: Von Pessumal
PF: Aljon Mariano - C: Raymond Aguilar
The Barangay are clearly in a groove. Ginebra extended its unbeaten streak to three games — tied for second-longest at the time of this writing in the ongoing PBA on Tour — after defeating the Terrafirma Dyip last Friday in Pasig, 114-106. Aljon Mariano stepped up big time for the Barangay, as he exploded for 25 points on 12/18 shooting from the field, while Sidney Onwubere and Von Pessumal put up 20 and 17 points, respectively.
Continue keeping an eye on Mariano, though, with the upcoming date with Meralco happening at his Espana-based alma mater, UST. He definitely would love to put on a show in his old stomping grounds for Ginebra. The Barangay are averaging just 93.0 points per contest but have scored at least 108 points in each of their last two outings.
Meralco Bolts (4-3)
Projected Starting Five:
- PG: Anjo Caram
- SG: Kier Quinto
- SF: Alvin Pasaol
- PF: Cliff Hodge
- C: Norbert Torres
Unlike Ginebra, the Bolts are coming off a 121-101 loss to the rampaging Magnolia Chicken Timplados Hotshots last Sunday at Filoil EcoOil Centre. The Timplados are just on another level in the PBA on Tour. At this point, asking Meralco to play against any team that’s not the Hotshots is a much better proposition for the Bolts, who are counting on the likes of Allein Maliksi and Kier Quinto to deliver the goods in Sampaloc this Wednesday.
Maliksi was pretty cold offensively in the Magnolia game with only eight points on 2/6 shooting but he still leads the Bolts with 21.17 points per game while Quinto, who had 14 points against the Hotshots, is second on the team with 14.71 points per outing. Meralco is shooting just 29.0 percent from behind the arc thus far in the PBA on Tour, but it just went 13/31 (41%) versus Magnolia.
PREDICTION:
Spread: Meralco (+2.5) covers the spread.
Over/Under: The total (196.5) hits the Under.
