Dominating the injury-plagued and battle-weary Kings, 93-86, in Game One, the Bulls are fancied and raring to make it two in a row in the second game of their series at 4:40 p.m.
Alaska snatched a 95-94 win over Coca-Cola Wednesday with the Aces determined to ride the momentum of that thrilling victory in their 7:35 p.m. encounter.
Should Red Bull and Alaska repeat tonight, Ginebra and Coca-Cola will need to win the next three games to gain entry into the Final Four and sister teams Purefoods Chunkee and San Miguel Beer in an all-San Miguel Corp. rumble.
After their lopsided win Wednesday, the Bulls have become more confident they can end the Kings’ reign as All-Filipino champs.
"We’ll work harder in Game Two. If we win again, it’s almost a clincher. We could break their spirit," said Red Bull coach Yeng Guiao.
"I think they’re so stretched out and we did well in rotating our guys, especially our defenders against (Mark) Caguioa. We intend to do the same in Game Two. We’ll not give him breathing space," Guiao added.
Actually, Caguioa still sparkled with a game-high 27 points despite the tough defense thrown at him by Red Bull.
Lordy Tugade, with only 22 points, lost his personal scoring battle with Caguioa but he had the rest of the Red Bull lineup putting in significant help.
Seven other Bulls tossed in at least seven points as the Photokina Marketing franchise outclassed the shorthanded Ginebra side, leading by as many as 19 points in the third quarter.
Andy Seigle has been reactivated from the injured list but he didn’t suit up in Game One.
If Red Bull had beaten Ginebra handily, Alaska, meanwhile, needed big breaks on crucial missed free throws by former player Johnny Abarrientos at endgame to steal the win over Coca-Cola.
Nic Belasco collared the rebound following Abarrientos’ bungled charities then sprinted down court, received a kick-out pass from Willie Miller and launched that make-or-break three-pointer that swished through the net with two-tenths of a second left in the clock.