Opening game winners Magnolia and San Miguel Beer gun for a commanding lead over their respective semifinals rivals in Game 2 of their best-of-five series in the 2023-’24 PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena on Friday, Jan. 26.

Riding the crest of their gutsy Game 1 win, the Beermen look to shove the defending champions Barangay Ginebra Kings to a 0-2 hole in the curtain raiser at 4 p.m.

The Hotshots also plan to do the same and take the fire out of the Phoenix Fuel Masters’ hopes in the second offering at 8 p.m.

While momentum is certainly on the side of Magnolia after successfully containing Phoenix import Johnathan Williams in its 82-79 Game 1 win, head coach Chito Victolero looks to fine-tune his team’s defensive setup even more as local stars Jason Perkins and RJ Jazul did most of the damage for the Fuel Masters.

“We just have to limit his activity on the floor, limit his offensive rebounding and his contribution on the offensive end but we also need to have a game plan on Perkins because Perkins also did a good job today helping the import,” said Victolero.

The Hotshots also need to put their own import Tyler Bey in better scoring position after needing 23 shots just to finish with 23 points in the game.

Meanwhile, SMB is bracing for a tough fightback from Ginebra in the second game following its pulsating 92-90 Game 1 win. Lady Luck seemed to have smiled more on the Beermen with a couple of breaks going their way in the waning seconds of the contest.

Of course, the team wouldn’t be in that position if not for the efforts of CJ Perez who stepped up and poured a conference-high of 26 points after Ginebra’s defense put more focus on the twin towers of June Mar Fajardo and Bennie Boatwright.

Expected to lead the bounce back effort for the Kings is their own version of frontline towers in Tony Bishop and Christian Standhardinger, who both finished with double-double efforts in the series opener.

Standhardinger, the Best Player of the Conference frontrunner, finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds while Bishop added 20 points and the same number of boards in a losing effort.