Kings, Bolts renew rivalry

MANILA, Philippines — Barangay Ginebra and Meralco are gathering forces and sharpening their weapons with their eighth postseason battle in the last eight seasons on the horizon.

The second-seeded and twice-beat Gin Kings and the No. 3 Bolts have lined themselves up for this PBA Philippine Cup best-of-seven semifinals by making short work of No. 7 Magnolia (99-77) and No. 6 NLEX (via 2-0 series sweep).

“It’s always tough and hard when we face Ginebra. They’re well-coached, they got depth and then they added some guys like (Ralph) Cu who are really great role players,” Meralco coach Luigi Trillo said of their old playoff rivals. “We know we’re going to get our hands full but we’re looking forward to it.”

Ginebra counterpart Tim Cone is equally wary of the Bolts, who handed them a 73-91 beating in their elims meeting last March 15.

“It’s going to be a battle. Meralco is the hottest team entering the playoffs and they already beat us up in the elims,” Cone told The STAR yesterday.

He also noted how the Bolts have “gotten a good feel” for the system of Trillo and active consultant Nenad Vucinic.

“They’re executing it at a high level. We’ll have to play great in the series to have a chance,” said Cone.

Ginebra and Meralco have built a post-elims rivalry that dates back to Season 41. The Bolts have won the most recent one, the Season 47 Philippine Cup quarterfinals, 2-1, to snap a string of six losses in different stages, including three Governors’ Cup finals.

Meanwhile, Trillo hopes to harness rookie slotman Brandon Bates’ full potential in this duel.

“We really need him against Ginebra,” Trillo said of the 6-foot-9 Bates who must help skipper Raymond Almazan man the fort versus Ginebra’s deadly tower of Christian Standhardinger and Japeth Aguilar.

“You see what Standhardinger has been doing. You have Japeth there. We need another big to help Raymond. Malaking bagay si Brandon moving forward,” he added.

The 27-year-old Fil-Aussie was a big contributor in Meralco’s 100-81 clincher over NLEX Sunday, hauling down seven rebounds and swatting three blocks while scoring two points.

“Brandon does a lot of the dirty work. He is a great pickup for us. A character guy all the way. He’s learning. He has the vets to take care of him,” Trillo said, even comparing Bates to Alaska great Sonny Thoss. “He reminds us a little bit of Sonny Thoss, who comes in and does the dirty work. He’s a little bit in that mold, where he’s an important guy when it comes to certain things that we want to do.”