The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel got the 1-0 lead with a dominant victory in Game 1 last Sunday. Will it be the same story in Game 2? Or, will the TNT Tropang Giga hit back to avoid falling down a 2-0 hole?

Catch this game live on Wednesday, April 12 at 5:45 pm, Manila time.

TNT Tropang Giga (0-1)

Projected Starting Five:

• PG: Mikey Williams
• SG: RR Pogoy
• SF: Paul Varilla
• PF: Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
• C: Poy Erram

There’s Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Mikey Williams, and then there’s the rest of the Tropang Giga in Game 1. In other words, there was not much support beyond those two players in TNT’s 102-90 series-opening loss to the Barangay. Calvin Oftana provided 16 points off the bench, but the bulk of it came during a third-period stretch. RHJ and Williams, meanwhile, came up with 30 and 23 points, respectively.

Meanwhile, RR Pogoy coughed up only six points. One thing about the Tropang Giga is that they have not lost back-to-back games since the calendar flipped to 2023, so that’s a good trend to provide optimism for the Tropang Giga. Pogoy was averaging 19.1 points per game entering Game 1 and also scored 22 points when the Tropang Giga defeated Ginebra during the elimination. He is due for a big bounce-back performance.

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel (1-0)

Projected Starting Five:

• PG: Scottie Thompson
• SG: Stanley Pringle
• SF: Jamie Malonzo
• PF: Justin Brownlee
• C: Christian Standhardinger

Ginebra showed championship poise in Game 1, with Justin Brownlee leading the way. Brownlee dropped 31 points with 12 rebounds and four assists and two blocks in the win against the Tropang Giga. Where Ginebra had a clear advantage over TNT in that contest was in the locals department, with Brownlee enjoying ample support from the likes of Jamie Malonzo (21 points), Christian Standhardinger (16 points, 11 rebounds), and Scottie Thompson (10 points, 13 rebounds, 11 assists).  

Stanley Pringle also provided 11 of the team’s 18 bench points. Ginebra’s offense got the shots it wanted for the most part of the contest, as the team also made sure to capitalize on TNT’s frontcourt that did not have Kelly Williams and got slimmer when Justin Chua left with an injury and most especially when Poy Erram reached the six-foul limit. Ginebra just has so many great weapons working fluidly with each other, as evidenced by its 28 assists in Game 1 to just 17 by TNT.

PREDICTION:

Spread: TNT(-4.0) covers the spread.

Over/Under: The total (210.0) hits the Over.