Clashes of raging forces

MANILA, Philippines — Unlike in the previous stage of the playoffs, there’s no built-in advantage or disadvantage for the protagonists in the PBA Season 49 Philippine Cup semifinals.

It’s all zero-zero heading into a best-of-seven matchups and as such, setting the tone in today’s opener at the MOA Arena is going to be vital for the Final Four cast.

Sixth-ranked TNT and No. 7 Rain or Shine, two gritty lower seeds that toppled their respective twice-to-beat opponents in the quarterfinals, dispute the 1-0 lead at 5 p.m. Top seed San Miguel Beer and No. 4 Barangay Ginebra, higher seeds that blitzed past their respective Bottom 4 rivals, eye first blood at 7:30 p.m.

For the Tropang 5G and the Elasto Painters, it’s a rekindling of a growing post-elims rivalry. They previously faced off in the semis of both the Governors’ Cup and Commissioner’s Cup with TNT winning each time in five games en route to the conference titles.

With a potential grand slam on the sights of the Chot Reyes-coached squad, ROS mentor Yeng Guiao expects their old foes to be motivated to repeat tenfold. But Guiao maintained his troops will come in just as fired-up.

“TNT, champion team going for a Grand Slam. But andiyan kami, lalabanan namin sila. Tingnan natin kung hanggang saan ‘yung aabutin namin,” said the fiery coach, who even jokingly described his youth-laden crew as the semis’ “gatecrashers.”

“I think they (TNT) have a purpose. Mahirap ‘yung kalaban mo na may pinupuntirya talaga na gusto nilang gawin. Pero meron din kaming purpose. So tignan natin kung sino ang makaka-achieve nung kanilang goal,”he added.

The Tropang 5G, who have been overcoming manpower woes due to injuries to their backcourt all conference long, are laser-focused on the race-to-four versus ROS, not looking far ahead.

“Our concern as a team has never been just winning the grand slam. It’s winning games and doing things the right way, making sure we’re doing our roles the right way and I think we’ve done that this conference,” said veteran Kelly Williams, who was a major factor in TNT’s two quarterfinal wins against No. 3 Magnolia.

Hunger won’t be lacking in the other F4 entanglement between SMB and Ginebra.

The Gin Kings lost to TNT in the finals of the first two conferences and intend to go all the way in the season ender. For their part, the Beermen missed out on the playoffs when they abdicated the throne in the previous Commissioner’s Cup so they’re out for redemption as well.

“It’s just going to be a hard series for us. No doubt about it,” said Ginebra’s Tim Cone. “But that’s why we play the game. If it’s easy, we’re probably not going to be excited playing the game all the time.”