THE season-concluding Governors’ Cup of the 2017 Philippine Basketball Association is about to kick-off with two fresh battles pitting four hungry teams.
The Alaska Aces and the NLEX Road Warriors clash at 7 p.m. in the evening’s main event.
Kia Picanto, formerly Mahindra, is on a collision course with the Phoenix Petroleum Fuel Masters when they open the show as curtain raisers at 4:15 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Aside from Phoenix, the three other teams seeing action today missed the playoffs of the previous Commissioner’s Cup. Hence, expect these teams to start their road towards redemption.
After missing out on its original choice due to height issues, Kia will parade returning import Markeith Cummings, formerly of the GlobalPort Batang Pier. He will take on another comebacking import in prolific scorer Eugene Phelps of Phoenix.
The Fuel Masters are expected are favored against Kia. Phelps is known to be a lethal weapon, having scored 50 points or more in several of his past games in the league.
However, Phoenix will miss the services of top gunner Matthew Wright who is currently on loan to the National Team that’s playing in Taiwan for the Jones Cup.
In the second game, Alaska is also set to unleash returning import Buck Henton, its reinforcement from last season. NLEX will have newbie Aaron Fuller.
The elimination round will feature a single-round robin format with the top eight teams advancing to the quarterfinals.
From there, the top two teams will have a twice-to-beat incentive over the lower-ranked teams while the teams in the middle (Nos. 3 to 6) will figure in best-of-three affairs. The semifinals will be a best-of-five affair. The finals will be best-of-seven.
The Governors’ Cup concludes the 2016–17 PBA season. The tournament allows teams to hire foreign players with a height limit of 6’5”
Due to the upcoming FIBA Asia Cup, the PBA decided to temporarily shelve signing up Asian imports.