The Importance of the Knights Winning Their Final Game: All for the Top Seed

As the commentators said it, playing against the San Juan Knights is always a tough assignment for one good reason: they are the defending champions and are certainly in a good position to win back-to-back MPBL titles. And after a 111- 88 win against the Caloocan Supremos yesterday, the Knights of John Wilson and company have given themselves a little separation between them and the Manila Stars. 

Right now, the Knights own a 25-4 record- the best record in both the North Division and the entire league. The Stars, who are on a 3-game winning streak, currently stand in second place in the North Division with 24-5 record. Now, both the Knights and the Stars still one game each left on their schedule as San Juan is slated to play against the Mindoro Tamaraws on February 8 while Manila will go up against the Zamboanga Valientes on February 10. Given that the Knights are only up by half a game against the Stars in the standings, it's imperative that they win their final game against Mindoro if they want a top seed finish after the elimination. Here's why:

If Manila wins against the Valientes and San Juan drops their game against the Tamaraws, both teams will be tied at 25-5. In this scenario, Manila will take over the top seed owing to the fact that they hold quotation advantage against San Juan as Manila beat San Juan last November. 

Now, if both teams win their final games, San Juan will own a 26-4 while Manila will own a 25-5 which will mean that the defending champions will enter the playoffs as the top seed. If the Stars win against Zamboanga but the Knights lose against the Tamaraws, both the Knights and the Stars will finish with an identical 25-5 records which will give Manila the top seed.  

And in an unlikely scenario that Manila and San Juan will lose their final games, the Knights will go down at 25-5 while Manila will go down at 24-6. San Juan will still get the top seed but you wouldn't want to head into the playoffs coming off a loss, would you?

San Juan needs to win against Mindoro regardless of the result of the game between Manila and Zamboanga.

Photo is from Harold Biado