Marquee squads Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and TNT Tropang Giga will meet head-on in this can’t-miss showdown on Sunday. Read on for more about this game.
Catch this game live on September 12 at 4:35 pm, Manila time.
The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel (3-4)
Projected Starting Five:
- PG: LA Tenorio
- SG: Scottie Thompson
- SF: Stanley Pringle
- PF: Japeth Aguilar
- C: Christian Standhardinger
The Barangay have failed record back-to-back wins again. They defeated the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters last Wednesday (83-77) but got tripped up by sister team San Miguel Beermen on Friday to the tune of a 111-102 score. That was an especially frustrating loss for Ginebra, as it looked like it was doing a good job of keeping up with the league’s best offense. Ginebra shot 52% from the field and went 11 of 21 from behind the arc.
The one factor that largely spelled the doom for the Barangay was San Miguel’s more prolific outside shooting. The Beermen hit 18 threes on 41 attempts. If that’s what it takes to beat the Barangay, then they should feel good about their chances on Sunday against a TNT team that has been freezing cold from long range this conference. The Tropang Giga are second-worst so far this conference with just a 27.78 3FG%.
The TNT Tropang Giga (7-1)
Projected Starting Five:
- PG: Brain Heruela
- SG: RR Pogoy
- SF: Mikey Williams
- PF: Troy Rosario
- C: Kelly Williams
Despite their 3-point shooting woes, the Tropang Giga have been the best team in the conference thus far, based on the standings. After getting taken down by the Beermen last Wednesday (83-67), TNT got returned to their winning ways by eking out an easy 100-85 victory on Friday over the NLEX Road Warriors. One big reason the Tropang Giga have been this good is super rookie Mikey Williams, who’s just feeling it.
He dropped 36 points on the Road Warriors to improve his team-best average to 13.3 points per game. Having someone like Williams is making life so easy for the Tropang Giga, especially for RR Pogoy and Jayson Castro, who are willing to take a step back and let a newcomer take over on offense. Williams will be a tough matchup for Ginebra’s guards, particularly for Tenorio. TNT is putting up 83.7 points per game in the conference.
PREDICTION:
Spread: Ginebra bounces back and deals the Tropang Giga their second loss of the conference. Take the Barangay to win and cover +3.
Over/Under: Ginebra will dictate the pace of this game, and from what he know, the Barangay likes it slow (bottom four in pace). Take the Under 169.
