The Meralco Bolts is scheduled for a head-to-head game against the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Gin Kings at 3:45 PM on November 20, 2020, live from the AUF Sports Arena and Cultural Center in Angeles City, Pampanga.
The first-seeded Barangay Ginebra showed early dominance in their best-of-five semifinals series against the fifth-rank Meralco Bolts, with Stanley Pringle (19), Scottie Thompson (13), Arvin Tolentino (13), LA Tenorio (11), Aljon Mariano (11), and Prince Caperal (10) scoring in double figures.
Considerably a familiar foe for the Gin Kings already, Ginebra’s superiority once again showed, beating Meralco anew with the score 96-79. The Tim Cone-head-coached team, in the second frame, outscored the Bolts, leading by as much as 25 points, which eventually led to a Ginebra win.
Cone, who earlier affirmed that these Bolts are “the toughest” they are facing in the playoffs, admitted the four-day rest was important for the Kings as the Bolts were stretched after overcoming a twice-to-beat disadvantage against San Miguel in the quarterfinals.
“It was a huge lift for us. There was a lot of tension even though the games weren’t that close. There are a lot of tension when you are trying to win a twice-to-beat, especially against the dominant team the last few years,” said Cone.
However, Cone was quite concerned with Allein Maliksi, who during their game 1 skirmish shot the lights out for Meralco, scoring a game-high 24 points and was 5-of-6 from three-point range.
“He was awesome, was he? If he continues to shoot like that the whole series, it’s going to be a tough series… He was amazing. We put great defenders on him, and he was still doing it to us,” Cone said.
“Those other guys are going to show up. No doubt about it. Newsome’s gonna get his numbers. (Bong) Quinto, Baser (Amer). They’re all gonna get their numbers. And if you have that to what Maliksi did (in Game 1), it’s gonna be a tough series,” Cone added.