Phoenix, Blackwater out to fan playoff hopes

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After opening the PBA Commissioner’s Cup on a high note, Phoenix and Blackwater have now found themselves struggling just to make the playoffs.

All is not lost, however, and either the Fuelmasters or Elite could still fan their flickering hopes of making it through should they prevail in their meeting Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Currently at 11th-running spot, Blackwater is in a must-win situation since a fourth straight loss would close the door on its bid for inclusion among the top eight teams advancing to the ensuing quarterfinals.

That’s quite a fall for an Elite team which was among the top three just over a month ago after opening the mid-season tourney at 2-1.

The pressure is as heavy on Phoenix, which opened up the conference with a win, but like Blackwater has lost five of its last six games.

Now at 10th, the Fuelmasters must sweep their last four elimination round games to grab a quarterfinals ticket.

Despite the herculean task which a recent painful loss helped bring about, Phoenix coach Koy Banal remains optimistic. “I hope we’ve learned from our setbacks that they may not happen again,” he said. . “The goal is to maintain the enthusiasm within the team for the rest of the conference. I believe everybody is still upbeat and positive.”

The Fuelmasters would not have been in such a situation if not for a 101-102 decision to Barangay Ginebra two Saturdays ago when the referees failed to call a travel on LA Tenorio, who went on to drain a buzzer-beating game-winner.

Not new to such games where the breaks didn’t go his team’s way, Banal maintains it’s all about moving forward.

“We have been in this kind of situation before. All we have to do is prepare ourselves mentally and emotionally to be able to push the right buttons and not panic,” said Banal.

Banal added that the respite was also used by Phoenix to fine-tune some plays.

“We have worked on our execution so we can take good shots in the game, not forced or hurried shots because we believe a good offense is good defense,” related Banal.

“We’ve got to put our players in the right spots. We also have to be really, really good with our ball screen defense.”

Blackwater sure could have used some time off to sharpen its offense anchored on two key players.

The Elite are coming off a 75-88 loss to NLEX, when MJ Rhett hauled down 18 rebounds but scored only 14 points on as many attempts and committed seven turnovers.

And then there’s Carlo Lastimosa.

After starting the conference with a career-high 39 points, Lastimosa averaged a scorching 27.25 ppg in Blackwater’s first four games. He has struggled to top 19 after that, however, and is coming off a six-point effort against NLEX when he was benched for good with still 4:30 left in the third period.

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