The last two teams in the 2025-26 Philippine Cup are about to lock horns in a best-of-7 finals, as the TNT Tropang 5G and the San Miguel Beermen are scheduled to collide in Game 1 in Antipolo. Check out our preview of this matchup below.

Catch this game live on Wednesday,  January 21, 2026 at 7:30 pm, Manila time.

TNT Tropang 5G (0-0)

Projected Starting Five:

  • Simon Enciso
  • Jordan Heading
  • Calvin Oftana
  • Brandon Rosser
  • Poy Erram

One thing about the Tropang 5G heading into the Finals is that they are well-rested. They had a quicker route to the finals after sending home sister ballclub Meralco Bolts home in just five games in the semifinals. 

The Tropang 5G simply were on a different level than Meralco, and they proved that in that semifinal series. A concern, however, for TNT is the status of star guard RR Pogoy, who is dealing with a hamstring issue. Pogoy sat out the series-clinching win by TNT against the Bolts, and could be without in the early goings, at least, of the finals.

“It’s very unpredictable. It doesn’t look good to be very honest about it,” TNT head coach Chot Reyes said about Pogoy’s injury during a recent appearance on Noli Eala’s Power & Play (h/t Spin.ph).

Nevertheless, the Tropang Giga have ample firepower to weather a potential absence by Pogoy, with the likes of Jordan Heading, Calvin Oftana and Rey Nambatac all capable of going off. Heading and Oftana had 19 and 16 points, respectively, when TNT lost to the Beermen in the elimination, 110-95.

San Miguel Beermen (0-0)

Projected Starting Five:

  • Chris Ross
  • CJ Perez
  • Marcio Lassiter
  • Moala Tautuaa
  • June Mar Fajardo

San Miguel has all the confidence in the world after striking out the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel in six games in the semifinals. People are also still buzzing about CJ Perez’s bonkers performance in the Beermen’s series-clinching 101-88 win over Ginebra, in which he erupted for 41 points on 17/23 shooting. Perez isn’t going to score like that every game, but he’ll surely be a threat still to TNT. 

In the first meeting with TNT, he dropped 33 points on 11/17 shooting. But as always, June Mar Fajardo is the alpha and the omega of San Miguel on the court even though he didn’t do much offensively in Game 6 of the Ginebra series, scoring just four points on five attempts. 

Defensively, he came up huge on the glass, as he had 14 of his 18 rebounds on the defensive end. Meanwhile, the depth of the Beermen is expected to give TNT a headache, with Don Trollano, Jericho Cruz and Juami  Tiongson providing additional scoring threats for SMB’s attack that is second in the league with an average of 104.8 points per game.

Picks

Spread: TNT Tropang 5G (+3.5)
Over/Under: Over (196.0)