THE deadly virus reared its ugly head on the PBA yesterday, forcing a new matchup and a shorter schedule today in the Philippine Cup at the Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.
Phoenix Super LPG and NorthPort collide in the opener, followed by the Magnolia-Alaska tussle in the nightcap.
The new schedule was starkly different from the originallyscheduled tripleheader, which would have had the Aces taking on Terrafirma and the Hotshots tackling TNT following the Phoenix-NorthPort game.
The league was forced to come up with the new matchups after tests conducted on teams and league personnel last Monday showed results on four TNT players needing confirmation.
“Four TNT Tropang Giga players have returned tests that were either positive or needs to be confirmed for COVID-19 under government-approved protocols,” a statement from the PBA released just after lunch yesterday said.
The statement added the four players, as well as the rest of TNT, have been isolated and will be tested again.
Terrafirma, which faced TNT last Saturday, returned negative results but has to be isolated and re-tested per the league’s health and safety protocols.
This development threw a monkey wrench on the affected teams’ preparations, but not their original motivation.
The winner of the Magnolia-Alaska match improves to 2-0 and moves alongside idle co-leaders Meralco and Rain or Shine.
Alaska scored the most emphatic win on opening day and in the entire tournament thus far, drubbing Blackwater 103-77 despite a game that coach Jeffrey Cariaso described was far from flawless.
“Obviously, the focus is defensively and our rotation was a little slow, we were confused a few times with how we’re defending certain guys, we weren’t consistent enough in our schemes,” Cariasosaid.
The Aces simply could not afford those same lapses against a Magnolia side also brimming with confidence following an 80-73 win over Phoenix last Saturday.
Calvin Abueva readily showed he fits right in with the Hotshots, notching 26 points and 10 rebounds against a Phoenix team that traded him off last February and is surely bent on following that up with a better performance against the team that made him the No. 2 pick overall in the 2012 draft.
Phoenix and NorthPort just want to crash the wincolumnbut must first iron out their own kinks.
