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Saturday, September 25, 2004
PBA games now 5 times a week
FIVE playing days a week, four of them televised live, is one of the unprecedented steps that the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) has taken to ensure that no Filipino misses the highest level of basketball competition in the country.
Unlike the Fiesta Conference that featured a straight Saturday-Sunday schedule, the league this time has put together a record four straight playing dates between Tuesday and Friday, alternating between provincial and Metro Manila-based games.
ABC-5, the league's television partner, will air the Wednesday and Friday games (both doubleheaders) beginning at 4:45 p.m. The television network begins its Sunday broadcast earlier at 4 p.m.
The network will cover the Thursday provincial game live followed immediately by the recorded telecast of the Tuesday game.
Picking up on the same format used in the Fiesta Conference, the 10 teams will play one another twice in a double-round qualifying phase with the top two teams advancing to the semifinals.
The remaining eight squads face off in a wild-card round with the third-ranked team facing the 10th-seeded team and the fourth seed taking on the ninth seed. Both the third and fourth-seeded teams will enjoy a twice-to-beat advantage.
The fifth-ranked team meets the eighth seed and the sixth-ranked team faces the seventh seed in a one-game knockout match.
Should the higher seeds of all four pairings in the wild-card round go on to win their respective matches, the third seed meets the sixth-ranked team while the fourth seed faces the fifth-ranked team in the quarterfinal round, scheduled for a best-of-three series.
The two winners of the quarterfinal series advance to the next round against the two outright semifinalists in a best-of-five series.
The winners of both semifinal series face off in the best-of-seven championship. PR
(September 25, 2004 issue)
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