PBA: Now on brink of elimination, Blackwater, Terrafirma can still force this wild scenario

Blackwater and Terrafirma can still make a crazy situation happen to stay alive in the quarterfinal hunt, but they first need to win their games on Wednesday night. PBA Images (file photo)

By Ivan Saldajeno

TERRAFIRMA and Blackwater are now in a must-win situation if they want to keep their flickering PBA Philippine Cup playoff hopes alive.

Another loss on Wednesday night at the Ynares Center 1 in Antipolo against the Meralco Bolts and Barangay Ginebra, respectively, will officially eliminate both the Dyip and Bossing from quarterfinal contention.

However, wins could spark a wild scenario that would see both Blackwater and Terrafirma with at least a good chance of still making the Final 8.

You see, the only way for both teams to stay alive in the conference is by sweeping their remaining games.

The Bossing are down to games against the Gin Kings, San Miguel Beermen, and TNT Tropang 5G, while the Dyip still have the Bolts, Gin Kings, and Phoenix Fuel Masters in their schedule.

While their remaining games are tough on paper, if both Blackwater and Terrafirma pull off huge upsets in all of them, they can finish at 4-7.

Now they must hope for developments from Meralco, Ginebra, Phoenix, and Titan Ultra that would favor them.

The Gin Kings losing to both the Bossing and Dyip will drop them to 3-6 ahead of their trip to Manama to face the Rain Or Shine Elasto Painters.

If Ginebra splits its remaining games, particularly a win against ROS and a loss against Titan Ultra on Dec. 21 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City, the Gin Kings will also finish at 4-7.

If the Bolts lose to the Dyip, they will drop to 3-5, and they still have the Beermen and Converge FiberXers in their remaining schedule.

If Meralco beats Phoenix but drops to both Converge and SMB, the Bolts will also finish at 4-7.

The aforementioned case will drop the Fuel Masters to 3-7, but if they beat the Giant Risers too, they will conclude their elimination round campaign at 4-7.

The prerequisites above will also mean Titan Ultra can end up at 4-7 as well.

There you go: a potentially wild six-way tie for the last two quarterfinal berths involving all the teams at the bottom half of the standings.

Blackwater may have some sort of an advantage already since they ripped Terrafirma by 20 points in their meeting.

However, with only Ginebra left among the teams that could end up in the wild scenario, the Bossing might also need to bludgeon the Gin Kings to further boost their chances.

Meanwhile, with the Dyip down to three teams that could end up in the wild six-way logjam, they need to also blow them out to not just cancel the huge deficit against the Bossing but also gain a huge advantage in the quotient wars.

But then again, if both Terrafirma and Blackwater lose on Wednesday night, forget that I wrote this.