PBACC The Quarterfinals: NLEX vs Meralco

Blue collar basketball
(Photo courtesy of Sports5)

"Walang kapatid-kapatid, walang kaibi-kaibigan."

Sorry. Couldn't help it. Couldn't help quoting a former President turned Mayor-on-redemption on this one simply because it will be the first time (in recent memory) that we'll see two of Team MVP's squads facing one another in the Playoffs (something that we've been quite used to with Team SMC). Basically, this is the Team MVP version of a Purefoods vs Ginebra, with Talk'n'Text playing the crown jewel San Miguel role.

Two teams that are built on fundamentally sound basketball, no superstar plays, no isolation-heavy star guards trying to carry his team onto greatness. Just good, clean almost college-like basketball featuring two of the more disciplined coaches out there today in Meralco's Norman Black and NLEX's Boyet Fernandez.

The Bolts are back in the Playoff picture much like last conference, save for the fact that they are now enjoying a good scoring run from ace Gary David (29 mpg, 18 ppg, 2 rpg, 1 apg). In the Philippine Cup, David struggled mightily and it forced the Bolts to turn to their swarming, switching defense (anchored by Reynel Hugnatan, Jared Dillinger, Cliff Hodge and Sean Anthony) to win games. Plus, the return of point guard Mike Cortez (32mpg, 10 ppg, 4 rpg, 4 apg) has helped stabilize the guys on the court. With the hard-working Josh Davis (39 mpg, 23 ppg, 17 rpg, 2 apg) wreaking all sorts of havoc in the paint in a super-Hodge kind of way, this team has proven to be quite tough to beat specially in close games as their style tends to wear opponents out by the minute.

On the other side, much of the Road Warriors' success can be attributed to their import (and our pick for Best Import) Al Thornton (41 mpg, 32 ppg, 13 rpg, 2 apg) plus team play. Thornton has been doing it all for the Road Warriors, scoring and rebounding for a team whose stats-leader local-wise is 42-year-old Asi Taulava (32 mpg, 10 ppg, 10 rpg, 2 apg) which is hardly acceptable. However, to Coach Boyet's boys' credit, they play solid defense despite not having a traditional stopper on the roster (Wyne Arboleda should retire).

In a Best-of-Three scenario, logically speaking, the Bolts should outwork and out-everything the Road Warriors. They have the guys to switch, their best line-up are basically interchangeable (Cortez, David, Dillinger, Hugnatan, Davis) on offense and defense, and their energy guys (Hodge and Anthony) could literally will them to victories.

BUT, since this is basketball, there are times wherein natural God-given talent overcomes training, skills and preparation. That's life. And the Road Warriors are blessed with arguably the best player on both rosters, when healthy, in Thornton. He's proven that he can do it all and score it all when needed, regardless of who is in front of him. This could be a case of a LeBron-like talent (Thornton) clashing heads with a Kahwi (Davis). IF Thornton could explode like he usually does and the Road Warriors play sound defense while making their shots, they could force this to a clincher and even advance to the next round.

Fearless forecast: Black's blue collar Bolts to advance