The Meralco Bolts is scheduled for a head-to-head game against the Phoenix Pulse Fuel Masters at 4:30 P.M. on June 7, 2019 live from the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
The Bolts are looking to go beyond the .500 winning percentage mark while the Fuel Masters wanted to avoid a back-to-back defeats when the 2019 PBA Commissioner’s Cup resume this afternoon in Quezon City.
The Phoenix squad had a heated match against the TNT KaTropa in their last outing. Early in the match head coach Louie Alas was called with a techincal foul and was ejected from the game.
Then later in that game, Calvin Abueva was also slapped with a technical foul (Flagrant Foul Penalty 2) and was also tossed out from the Ynares Center basketball floor. That’s after he hit TNT import Terrence Jones.
As a result, coach Alas and Abueva got their separate suspensions sanctioned by the PBA Commissioner’s office.
Alas will sitout for two games while “The Beast”, Calvin Abueva got a much tougher penalty which is the indefinite suspension.
Apart from that, the Fuel Masters needed to replace Rob Dozier who suffered an injury. They have tapped a former Best Import Awardee, Richard Howell.
“No Calvin, new import, coming off a big and disappointing loss. It will be a huge challenge for us, especially for me as captain of the ship,” said Alas.
“Anyway, wala kaming topic kundi move forward and bounce back. Preparation is good, pero wala pa import, mamaya pa (Thursday afternoon) dating. As much as possible ang schemes namin is very simple: no complications para madaling ma-digest ni Rich Howell,” he added.
Regardless of those negative factors from their opponent, Meralco head coach Norman Black isn’t expecting that their scheduled match will be a walk-at-the-park for them.
“Despite what’s been happening we still consider Phoenix to be a very dangerous team so we will have to be on top of our game,” said Black.