Sister teams Meralco Bolts and NLEX Road Warriors will each look to pick up their second win of the season when they clash in the second game of this Wednesday’s doubleheader at the Mecca of Philippine basketball.

Catch this game live on Wednesday,  March 6 at 7:30 pm, Manila time.

Meralco Bolts (1-1)

Projected Starting Five:

  • Aaron Black
  • Cliff Hodge
  • Chris Newsome
  • John Quinto
  • Norbert Torres

Meralco finally got in the win column last Saturday when they took down the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, 121-117. Before that, the Bolts got stunned by James Yap and the Blackwater Bossing in a 96-93 loss in Antipolo. Veteran wing Allein Maliksi is on a hot start to the conference. He scored 27 points in the Blackwater game then dropped 26 points to lead the Bolts to the win over the Elasto Painters. 

It remains to be seen how long Maliksi will be able to keep it going, but he’s definitely a man to watch out for this Wednesday. As a team, Meralco is averaging 107.0 points through two games this conference. The Bolts, who are also shooting at a relatively high clip of 36 percent from deep, are 2-0 straight up in their last two meetings with the Road Warriors.

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NLEX Road Warriors (1-1)

Projected Starting Five:

  • Robert Bolick
  • Enoch Valdez
  • Sean Anthony
  • Anthony Paul Semerad
  • Michael Miranda

The Road Warriors are looking to rebound from a 99-95 loss in Cubao to the Terrafirma Dyip last Sunday. The loss foiled NLEX’s hope of starting the conference with a 2-0 record. They opened their 2024 Philippine Cup campaign on Mar. 1 in a 107-100 humbling of the NorthPort Batang Pier. 

Whereas the Bolts have the red-hot Maliksi, the Road Warriors might have an even hotter asset in the form of Robert Bolick, who has scored 29 points in back-to-back games. However, Bolick was the only NLEX player who scored in double figures in the Terrafirma game. Sean Anthony will also be looking to get rid of the bitter taste of his 1/10 shooting versus the Dyip. Enoch Valdez could be the X-factor here for NLEX. Valdez is putting up 12.5 points and grabbing 7.5 rebounds per game for the Road Warriors in the conference, thus far.

PREDICTION:

Spread: Meralco (-5.5) covers the spread.

Over/Under: The total (196.5) hits the Over.

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