The Blackwater Bossing look to cut the Converge FiberXers’ access to the playoffs when these two teams run into each other this Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Will Blackwater show the FiberXers who the boss is? Or, will Converge make things interesting with a victory?

Catch this game live on Wednesday,  July 20 at 3 pm, Manila time.

Blackwater Bossing  (5-4)

Projected Starting Five:

  • PG: JVee Casio
  • SG: Rashawn McCarthy
  • SG: Rey Suerte
  • PF: Renato Ular
  • C: Yousif Taha

Blackwater is coming off an incredibly embarrassing 98-68 loss to the NLEX Road Warriors last Friday, which would go down in PBA history as one of the hardest games to watch, mainly because the Elite scored just a grand total of two points in the entire first quarter. With that loss, the Bossing are now 0-3 in their last three games. Looking for their way out of this slump, the Bossing try to recover the formula that made them successful earlier in the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup. 

After posting a devastatingly poor 74.5 offensive rating in the NLEX game, the Bossing have no way to go but up on that end of the floor. So far this season, Blackwater is averaging 90.8 points per game and 99.5 points per 100 possessions. This is a team that has improved a lot since the last conference, so the Bossing aren’t really new to suffering losses like this. If anything, that kind of background should help them rebound right away from their forgettable defeat at the hands of the Road Warriors. 

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Converge FiberXers (4-6)

Projected Starting Five:

  • PG: Mike DiGregorio
  • SG: Maverick Ahanmisi
  • SF: Kevin Racal
  • PF: Abu Tratter
  • C: Jeo Ambohot

The FiberXers are desperate for a victory, as a loss this Wednesday could doom their chances of making the playoffs in its maiden conference. Converge was having a nice little two-game win streak before the Phoenix LPG Fuel Masters rained on the FiberXers parade last Saturday. In that 89-66 loss to Phoenix, the FiberXers shot just 31.7% from the field, in large part because they couldn’t break their addiction of launching threes and seeing those shots go brick. 

Converge finished that game with a 1/29 line on their 3-point attempts. It’s unlikely to be that bad again for Converge, but it will have to be more aggressive in finding opportunities to take higher percentage shots. Converge might also be catching the Bossing at just the right time, given the latter’s struggles to win games lately. The Bossing might be cracking up under the pressure brought about by their surprising success in the early goings of the conference.

PREDICTION:

Spread: Blackwater (-1.5) covers.

Over/Under: The Under (179.0) hits.

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