(Photo: PBA/Facebook)
MANILA— The race to the PBA Philippine Cup quarterfinals intensifies on Wednesday as three teams that are in the middle of the team standings will play at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
Two of them will face off, as TNT and Phoenix collide in the first game at 4:30 p.m. Ginebra will battle cellar-dwelling Kia in the 7 p.m. tiff.
The KaTropa is tied with the Rain Or Shine Elasto Painters for fourth place at 4-3.
However, not far behind are the Fuel Masters and Barangay Ginebra, who are in a four-way logjam for sixth to ninth places at 3-4 with the NLEX Road Warriors and the GlobalPort Batang Pier.
Phoenix and Ginebra are in need of a win to stay away from falling into either the twice-to-beat disadvantage in the quarterfinals or even missing the playoffs at all.
On the other hand, TNT looks to break out of the middle of the pack and boosts its chances of landing at a favorable seeding in the quarterfinals.
Meanwhile, survival is the name of the game for Kia as the club needs to win its remaining four games to have a chance to sneak into the next round.