ADVERTISEMENT
Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider Semis sibling rivalries set to ignite PBA playoffs

Semis sibling rivalries set to ignite PBA playoffs

Published Jan 3, 2026 03:23 pm

At A Glance

  • Meralco and TNT, two teams under the MVP umbrella, lock horns first in the opening game at 5:15 p.m. before sister squads from the SMC conglomerate San Miguel and Barangay Ginebra tangle in the second contest at 7:30 p.m.

The PBA Philippine Cup playoffs return to action with a pair of thrilling sibling rivalries on Sunday, Jan. 4, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Meralco and TNT, two teams under the MVP umbrella, lock horns first in the opening game at 5:15 p.m. before sister squads from the SMC conglomerate San Miguel and Barangay Ginebra tangle in the second contest at 7:30 p.m.
All squads are looking for a winning start to their best-of-seven affairs.
Both the Tropang 5G and the Beermen, who clashed in the last all-Filipino Cup finals, advanced quickly to the semifinals without needing their twice-to-beat advantage.
The Kings and the Bolts, on the other hand, displayed great resilience to overcome a twice-to-win disadvantage to reach the Final Four.
All eyes, however, should be on defending champion San Miguel, which, before taking a week-long break following a 101-94 win over NLEX, enters the semifinals as the league’s hottest team with 10 straight victories.
But Ginebra isn’t coming in without any momentum as their twin victories over Converge — the last one a 99-98 nail-biting overtime — capped a seven game winning run.
One of those streaks would come to an end however, although June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, Marcio Lassiter, Don Trollano and Jericho Cruz surely wouldn’t want that to happen for SMB.
But the same could be said for Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar, Stephen Holt and RJ Abarrientos who has been a vital cog to Ginebra’s impressive run so far.
Over at the other bracket, it would be a battle with offensive firepower with TNT and the defensive juggernaut with Meralco.
The Tropang 5G certainly have a lot of weapons on their arsenal led by Calvin Oftana and RR Pogoy along with the solid backcourt of Jordan Heading and Rey Nambatac.
The inside threats won’t also be a problem as TNT also have Kelly Williams, Poy Erram and Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser.
But the Bolts have proven time in again that they can cripple an explosive offense just like when they took down the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in the quarterfinals.
Raymond Almazan and Brandon Bates are expected to anchor the defensive stand for Meralco though they have plenty of good two-players with Chris Banchero, Chris Newsome, Bong Quinto and Aaron Black.
ADVERTISEMENT
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1561_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1562_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.most-popular .layout-ratio{ padding-bottom: 79.13%; } @media (min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1024px) { .widget-title { font-size: 15px !important; } }

{{ articles_filter_1563_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}

{{ articles_filter_1564_widget.title }}

{{ item.title }}
.mb-article-details { position: relative; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview, .mb-article-details .article-body-summary{ font-size: 17px; line-height: 30px; font-family: "Libre Caslon Text", serif; color: #000; } .mb-article-details .article-body-preview iframe , .mb-article-details .article-body-summary iframe{ width: 100%; margin: auto; } .read-more-background { background: linear-gradient(180deg, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0) 13.75%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000 / 0.8) 30.79%, color(display-p3 1.000 1.000 1.000) 72.5%); position: absolute; height: 200px; width: 100%; bottom: 0; display: flex; justify-content: center; align-items: center; padding: 0; } .read-more-background a{ color: #000; } .read-more-btn { padding: 17px 45px; font-family: Inter; font-weight: 700; font-size: 18px; line-height: 16px; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle; border: 1px solid black; background-color: white; } .hidden { display: none; }
function initializeAllSwipers() { // Get all hidden inputs with cms_article_id document.querySelectorAll('[id^="cms_article_id_"]').forEach(function (input) { const cmsArticleId = input.value; const articleSelector = '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .body_images'; const swiperElement = document.querySelector(articleSelector); if (swiperElement && !swiperElement.classList.contains('swiper-initialized')) { new Swiper(articleSelector, { loop: true, pagination: false, navigation: { nextEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-next', prevEl: '#article-' + cmsArticleId + ' .swiper-button-prev', }, }); } }); } setTimeout(initializeAllSwipers, 3000); const intersectionObserver = new IntersectionObserver( (entries) => { entries.forEach((entry) => { if (entry.isIntersecting) { const newUrl = entry.target.getAttribute("data-url"); if (newUrl) { history.pushState(null, null, newUrl); let article = entry.target; // Extract metadata const author = article.querySelector('.author-section').textContent.replace('By', '').trim(); const section = article.querySelector('.section-info ').textContent.replace(' ', ' '); const title = article.querySelector('.article-title h1').textContent; // Parse URL for Chartbeat path format const parsedUrl = new URL(newUrl, window.location.origin); const cleanUrl = parsedUrl.host + parsedUrl.pathname; // Update Chartbeat configuration if (typeof window._sf_async_config !== 'undefined') { window._sf_async_config.path = cleanUrl; window._sf_async_config.sections = section; window._sf_async_config.authors = author; } // Track virtual page view with Chartbeat if (typeof pSUPERFLY !== 'undefined' && typeof pSUPERFLY.virtualPage === 'function') { try { pSUPERFLY.virtualPage({ path: cleanUrl, title: title, sections: section, authors: author }); } catch (error) { console.error('ping error', error); } } // Optional: Update document title if (title && title !== document.title) { document.title = title; } } } }); }, { threshold: 0.1 } ); function showArticleBody(button) { const article = button.closest("article"); const summary = article.querySelector(".article-body-summary"); const body = article.querySelector(".article-body-preview"); const readMoreSection = article.querySelector(".read-more-background"); // Hide summary and read-more section summary.style.display = "none"; readMoreSection.style.display = "none"; // Show the full article body body.classList.remove("hidden"); } document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", () => { let loadCount = 0; // Track how many times articles are loaded const offset = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]; // Offset values const currentUrl = window.location.pathname.substring(1); let isLoading = false; // Prevent multiple calls if (!currentUrl) { console.log("Current URL is invalid."); return; } const sentinel = document.getElementById("load-more-sentinel"); if (!sentinel) { console.log("Sentinel element not found."); return; } function isSentinelVisible() { const rect = sentinel.getBoundingClientRect(); return ( rect.top < window.innerHeight && rect.bottom >= 0 ); } function onScroll() { if (isLoading) return; if (isSentinelVisible()) { if (loadCount >= offset.length) { console.log("Maximum load attempts reached."); window.removeEventListener("scroll", onScroll); return; } isLoading = true; const currentOffset = offset[loadCount]; window.loadMoreItems().then(() => { let article = document.querySelector('#widget_1690 > div:nth-last-of-type(2) article'); intersectionObserver.observe(article) loadCount++; }).catch(error => { console.error("Error loading more items:", error); }).finally(() => { isLoading = false; }); } } window.addEventListener("scroll", onScroll); });
Join Our Newsletters

Sign up by email to receive news.

© 2025 Manila Bulletin The Nation's Leading Newspaper. All Rights Reserved.