PBA Friday: Top vs Bottom, Who Has More Incentives to Win

Ginebra and San Miguel Beermen will be playing tomorrow, Friday at the Big Dome! It will be a good game if they are playing against each other but they are not. 

Both teams are safe and sound on top of the standing respectively, at number 2 and 3 but their opponents are on the other end of the spectrum. Let's look at the match up Friday and talk about why the games are still critical to the conference. 

First Game: San Miguel vs Global Port, 4 pm. 

For Global Port: You may be thinking Global Port has the more incentive because winning against San Miguel not only gives you an outright position in the quarter-finals, it also gives you that feeling of motivation after beating one of the best team in the league and a champion team. Yes? Global Port needs to show the rest of the teams that they are not out of the game just yet and with players like Romeo and Pringle, anything, I mean anything could happen. 

For SMB:  Aside from the obvious twice to beat advantage, they want to make a statement that they are still the lords of basketball especially with the emergence of Ginebra and Star Hotshots.  Winning against Global Port tomorrow will make them number 1 the elimination and obviously will give them a feeling of confidence and momentum, which is important. 

Second Game: Mahindra vs Ginebra, 7 pm. 

Mahindra: Just give this game to Ginebra, it has no bearing in the conference- no no no!  Every game is important especially with Mahindra and more importantly against the crowd-favorite Ginebra. Mahindra may be on its way out but they could still make the headline by giving Ginebra a loss and preventing them from getting the twice to beat advantage.  It is a bad blow for Ginebra but for Mahindra, it will be a great way to end the elimination. A win against Ginebra will put them in all Ginebra meme online. Mahindra could be one of only three teams to defeat Ginebra this elimination round. 

Ginebra: Just the same as their sister company, a win here would automatically award both of them the twice to beat advantage and by the looks of it, it may be within reach especially against Mahindra. There are no other teams in the PBA that should be motivated like Ginebra.  Being the most popular team in the PBA, the majority of fans always expect them to win every game especially if the fans watch live in the venue. No other teams can do that. 

With that being said,  I see the games on Friday going the direction of Ginebra and SMB, they are just too good.