The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel is scheduled for a best-of-three series against the Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok at 6:45 P.M. on July 20, 2019 live from the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
It’s “Manila Classico” once again but this time around a more intense battle as the Gin Kings and the Hotshots will face once again in the Quarterfinals round.
Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone understands that their success playing against Magnolia in the elimination round means nothing when the tournament reaches its playoffs round.
During the 2018 PBA Governors’ Cup and in the 2019 PBA Philippine Cup they won the “Manila Classico” elimination round but failed to advance and move deeper in the playoffs as the Hotshots erased them in the road to the finals picture.
“The last two conferences, we’ve beaten them in the elims only to fall short against them in the playoffs. We need to change that narrative this time around. They always find a way to play big in the playoffs so, as usual, we’ll need to lift our game. It’s going to be a great battle,” Cone said.
For Magnolia, they blow their chance to finish the elims as one of the two squads after they absorbed four straight defeats.
To stop their losing skid, Magnolia has tapped the services of Rakeem Christmas and sent James Farr back home.
Yet, they still absorbed another defeat against the league-leading TNT KaTropa in their last match prior to the quarterfinals round.
Probably it was because of fatigue he got from travel and still in an adjustment period with his new team were the reasons why Christmas failed to showcase his true basketball talents.
To pick up his game, Christmas will take the advice of his father-in-law who is the basketball great, Michael Jordan.
“He always tells me to just give it my all and get ready. So I’ll do what he said, put this game behind me, get ready for next game,” he said.
The former Indiana Pacers player will matchup against the reigning second conference Best Import, Justin Brownlee.
Brownlee is on a scoring frenzy lately where he delivered 99 points in just two games.
“I just wanna come out, stay aggressive,” said Brownlee.