The final chapter of another PBA season will revert back to the habit of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and Meralco fighting it out for the Governors’ Cup championship.
It will be the fourth time in the last six years that the two teams from corporate rivals San Miguel Corporation and MVP Group are going to slug it out for the season-ending crown.
A one-sided affair in the past three meetings, Ginebra is out to continue the trend and give its fans who have waited for most of the pandemic to see their beloved team in the flesh another trophy to lift at center court.
But Meralco hopes to replicate something Juan Manuel Marquez did against Manny Pacquiao almost 10 years earlier when the fourth time became a charm.
Finally getting it done would mean a lot for long-suffering Meralco players and coaches who have seen Ginebra with jubilant faces after each championship battle.
Both teams endured rough roads to get to the pinnacle which begins Wednesday, April 6 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Despite finishing sixth during a seesaw eliminations marred by a four-game skid, Ginebra weathered the storm by overcoming TNT’s twice-to-beat advantage in the quarters before continuing its hot form in the semis with a 3-1 dispatch of NLEX.
Meralco brushed off a shock meltdown against San Miguel Beer despite a 26-point lead during their late elims match to secure the twice-to-beat, an incentive that came in handy when it beat the same team in the quarters.
A bruising semis encounter with Magnolia Pambansang Manok that reached the maximum five games resulted in a vengeful series win and another opportunity to slay the ghost of past heartbreaks against Ginebra.
Justin Brownlee’s buzzer-beating three in 2016 ended Ginebra’s eight-year title drought and began the string of victories by the league’s most popular team at Meralco’s expense.
Meralco pushed the 2017 meeting to a full seven games, but Ginebra went out on top in the decider before a crowd of 54,000 fans at the Philippine Arena.
The 2019 edition was actually held in January 2020, with both teams split the first two games. But the series took a drastic turn in Game 3 when Meralco’s Raymond Almazan injured his left knee, and Ginebra went on to win the next three to once again prevail.
Ginebra continued its dominance, albeit in a semifinal series in the 2020 Philippine Cup bubble when a corner three by Scottie Thompson late stunned Meralco in Game 5.
There will be plenty of subplots going into this latest slugfest, with Brownlee looking to continue his perfect run in finals appearances with this his fifth since arriving six years ago.
Ginebra coach Tim Cone has won all five battles against Meralco counterpart Norman Black, who will now have import Tony Bishop in tow after parading Allen Durham in the past three editions.
Also to be watched out are the performances of Thompson, the frontrunner for the Best Player of the Conference, and Meralco’s Allein Maliksi, who has been big almost the whole campaign with his consistent shooting.
John Pinto, an energizer bunny since leaving Meralco for Ginebra as an unrestricted free agent, faces his old club while Chris Banchero, who was hurt in the semis, hopes to be healthy enough to play an integral part.
Almazan is eager to atone for his absence late in the last duel while Ginebra hopes to succeed despite the absence of the injury of Stanley Pringle and the calf issues that sidelined Japeth Aguilar.
And the elimination round result of Meralco taking a 101-95 win over Ginebra in their only elims meeting last Feb. 13 may or may not play out.
Once the two teams begin to meet anew for the big prize, everyone that will tune in are going to figure out if it is the same old story and a different ending.