Facing elimination

The Meralco Bolts should come out on full urgency mode as they have little to no momentum and facing elimination against one of the league’s best teams. The 101-97 loss in Game 3 was also a morale killer. They jumped into a good rhythm early but it got halted quickly and they couldn’t re-capture it in time.

As the Bolts look to push the best-of-five series into a sudden-death, we can expect the team to return to their bread and butter: give Allen Durham the ball and see how it goes. Such a style is like a suicide during playoff time but it’s simply Meralco’s brand of ball, and it has saved them a handful of times.

Durham, as you know, is a machine for the Bolts. He’s averaging 30.7 points, 15.5 rebounds, and 6.5 assists in the series. There’s been a scarcity of help for him, though, because everyone’s been pretty much non-existent outside Baser Amer and Chris Newsome, who are only toeing the mid to low teens in PPG averages. Both are capable playmakers and sadly it’s not enough against a TNT type of opponent.

All but sure for a finals trip?

The TNT KaTropa has one foot on the door for the PBA Governor’s Cup finals. They succeeded in edging out the Bolts in Game 3 thanks to a finely tuned surge from the locals. It was a good showing from the supporting cast and it was a good balancing act for KJ McDaniels quiet night.

McDaniels (37.2 PPG, 13.7 RPG) had conference lows in the previous game – 18 points on a sour 33.3% shooting – while his co-starters jumped in to provide a scattered scoring output.

It’s hard to imagine the Hulk-like import having another dud. He’s just too fast, too strong, and too athletic to be contained in back-to-back outings, so expect him try and go off just like what he has done all conference long. Durham is the only Bolt who has a good chance of rough him up, and that dude already has a boatload of burden on offense.

Even if McDaniels somehow gets cold again, his KaTropa cohorts are reliable to explode on their own. Stretch big man Troy Rosario (15.8 PPG in the series) headlines that list and he had a team-high 25 points with five threes in Game 3. After Rosario, there’s also Jayson Castro, Ray Ray Parks, and Roger Pogoy.

PREDICTION:

TNT gets it done. They close the series out courtesy of a 102-96 win.