2023 MPBL playoffs

Tournament statisticsMatches played36

The 2023 MPBL playoffs was the postseason tournament of the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League's 2023 season, the league's fifth overall, and the fourth under the 16-team format. The postseason tournament began on October 6, three days after the end of the regular season, and ended on December 2, 2023.^[1]

For sponsorship reasons, this playoff series is known as the 2023 Nexus88 MPBL Playoffs presented by Xtreme.

Overview

Updates to playoff appearances

• The Pampanga Giant Lanterns entered the playoffs for the third consecutive season and also clinched the best record in the league for the first time.^[2]
• The Bacoor City Strikers entered the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season and also clinched the best record in the South Division for the first time.
• The Batangas City Embassy Chill entered the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season, currently the longest active playoff streak in the MPBL.
• The GenSan Warriors, San Juan Knights, and Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines entered the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.
• Pasig City MCW Sports entered the playoffs for the third consecutive season.
• The Marikina Shoemasters, Muntinlupa Cagers, and Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards entered the playoffs for the second consecutive season.
• The Quezon Huskers entered the playoffs for the first time in team history.
• The Iloilo United Royals, Makati OKBet Kings, and Pasay Voyagers entered the playoffs for the first time since 2020.
• The Caloocan Batang Kankaloo and Imus SV Squad entered the playoffs for the first time since 2019.
• The Bataan Risers missed the playoffs for the first time since entering the league in 2018.
• The Laguna Heroes and Parañaque Patriots missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, currently the longest active playoff droughts in the MPBL.

Notable events

• With the elimination of Bataan, Batangas City is now the only founding team to have never missed the playoffs.
• Quezon is the first team in the professional era to make the playoffs in its inaugural season.
• Both Cavite teams (Bacoor City and Imus) enter the playoffs in the same season for the first time since 2019.

First Round

• Iloilo became the first 8-seed to lead a playoff series against a 1-seed.
• Game 2 of the Makati–San Juan series was the first playoff game in league history to go into double overtime.
• General Santos's series win against Muntinlupa marked the first time a Soccsksargen-based team has won a playoff series.

Division Finals

• San Juan became the lowest-seeded team to make the Division Finals. This was previously held by Manila in 2019 (4th in North).
  • San Juan is also the lowest-seeded team to make the penultimate round since Parañaque made the Semifinals in 2018 (7th overall).
• Following Nueva Ecija's elimination to San Juan and Zamboanga's elimination to Bacoor City, this marks the first time neither of last season's finalists make the Division Finals.
• Both teams in the South Division Finals are based in the Calabarzon region for the first time. It also the first time that the South Division Finals won't feature a Mindanao-based team.
• Pampanga's 2–0 series victory over San Juan marked the first series sweep in the Division Finals.
  • It is also the first such sweep in the penultimate round since Batangas City's sweep against Valenzuela in 2018.
• Bacoor City beating Batangas City in two games marked the first time in league history in which both Semifinals/Division Finals series concluded in two games.

MPBL Finals

• For the first time since 2018, the MPBL Finals featured two Luzon-based teams.
  • It was also the second consecutive season in which the Finals featured a Central Luzon-based team, but not a Metro Manila-based team.
• Pampanga became the first team in league history to sweep a Finals series.
  • Pampanga is also the first team to sweep every playoff series in a single season.

Format

The top eight teams from each division advance to the playoffs. Seeding is based on wins, with tiebreaker rules applied should multiple teams have the same record. The single-elimination bracket consists of four rounds with no reseeding. The first three rounds being best-of-three series and the National Finals being a best-of-five series.

During the first two rounds, two games within the same division are played in a gameday, with homecourt advantage alternating between the higher-seeded teams of each series. A traditional homecourt format is then used for the last two rounds, with the Division Finals using a 1–1–1 format and the National Finals using a 2–2–1 format. The designated home team may not be able to play within its home locality. Should it occur, the gameday may take place elsewhere.

Division standings

Bracket

Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its division, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. Teams with homecourt advantage, the higher-seeded team, are shown in italics.

First Round (Best-of-3)

Division Semifinals (Best-of-3)

Division Finals (Best-of-3)

National Finals (Best-of-5)

N1

Pampanga

2

N8

Marikina

0

N1

Pampanga

2

N4

Caloocan

0

N4

Caloocan

2

N5

Pasig City

1

N1

Pampanga

2

North Division

N6

San Juan

0

N2

Nueva Ecija

2

N7

Pasay

0

N2

Nueva Ecija

0

N6

San Juan

2

N3

Makati

0

N6

San Juan

2

N1

Pampanga

3

S1

Bacoor City

0

S1

Bacoor City

2

S8

Iloilo

1

S1

Bacoor City

2

S4

Zamboanga

0

S4

Zamboanga

2

S5

Quezon

1

S1

Bacoor City

2

South Division

S2

Batangas City

0

S2

Batangas City

2

S7

Imus

0

S2

Batangas City

2

S3

General Santos

1

S3

General Santos

2

S6

Muntinlupa

1

First Round

North Division

(1) Pampanga Giant Lanterns vs. (8) Marikina Shoemasters

This game featured the MPBL debut of 9-time PBA champion and Pampanga homegrown Arwind Santos. Santos only scored four points, including the buzzer-beating three-pointer at the end of the game.^[1]

Head-to-head matchup
One PH Media Pilipinas TV May 19 8:00 pm Boxscore Marikina Shoemasters 75–83 Pampanga Giant Lanterns Scoring by quarter: 25–26, 9–22, 15–19, 26–16 Pts: Marwin Dionisio 24 Rebs: Jason Opiso 8 Asts: Felipe Chavez 7 Pts: MJ Garcia 17 Rebs: Justine Baltazar 26 Asts: Justine Baltazar 5 Brenz Z. Guiao Convention Center, San Fernando, Pampanga Referees: Jovet Ocfemia, Rodel Brila, Severino Pingol

This is the first playoff meeting between Pampanga and Marikina.

(2) Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards vs. (7) Pasay Voyagers

Head-to-head matchup
One PH Media Pilipinas TV September 28 8:00 pm Boxscore Pasay Voyagers 79–88 Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards Scoring by quarter: 23–17, 18–23, 22–22, 16–26 Pts: Axel Iñigo, AJ Coronel 15 Rebs: Dhon Reverente 9 Asts: Lauenz Victoria 6 Pts: Jonathan Uyloan 18 Rebs: Stephen Siruma 9 Asts: Roi Sumang 6 Nueva Ecija Coliseum, Palayan, Nueva Ecija

This is the first playoff meeting between Nueva Ecija and Pasay.

(3) Makati OKBet Kings vs. (6) San Juan Knights

This series marked the third meeting of coaches Don Dulay (Makati) and Randy Alcantara (San Juan). Both coaches met in back-to-back National Finals and split one championship each, with Alcantara winning in 2019 for San Juan, and Dulay winning in 2021 for Davao Occidental.

The game was the first in MPBL playoffs history to feature more than one overtime period, with both Makati and San Juan causing multiple lead changes and deadlocks throughout the entire game.

During the second overtime period, San Juan went on a 7–1 scoring run culminating in a three-point field goal by Wamar as the Knights led by 5 heading into the final minute. Calo cut the lead to three with two free throws, and then Cullar attempted a three-pointer to potentially cause triple overtime, but the ball went in and out of the rim. San Juan kept the ball in possession for the remaining seconds as the Knights advance to their fourth consecutive Division Semifinals appearance.^[3]

Head-to-head matchup
One PH Media Pilipinas TV May 26 8:00 pm Boxscore Makati OKBet Kings 95–84 San Juan Knights Scoring by quarter: 16–23, 19–15, 26–29, 34–17 Pts: JC Cullar 19 Rebs: Robby Celiz 8 Asts: Robby Celiz 6 Pts: Orlan Wamar Jr. 18 Rebs: Adrian Nocum 11 Asts: three players 4 Filoil EcoOil Centre, San Juan Referees: Jovet Ocfemia, Julius Tiquio, Cornel Tungol

This is the second playoff meeting between Makati and San Juan, with San Juan winning the previous meeting.

Previous playoffs series

San Juan leads 1–0 in all-time playoff series
2021 San Juan Knights 2, Makati Super Crunch 1 2020–21 Northern Division Finals

(4) Caloocan Batang Kankaloo vs. (5) Pasig City MCW Sports

With the game tied at 69–69, Gabby Espinas hit the mid-range jumper on Jason Ballesteros to give Caloocan the lead with 0.7 seconds left on the clock. Following two timeouts from Pasig City, Kenny Rocacurva gave the inbound pass to Ryan Costelo, who failed to score a potential game-tying field goal.^[4]

Head-to-head matchup
One PH Media Pilipinas TV May 10 8:00 pm Boxscore Caloocan Batang Kankaloo 74–82 Pasig City MCW Sports Scoring by quarter: 13–18, 17–23, 21–27, 23–14 Pts: Jeramer Cabanag 16 Rebs: Ronnie Matias 11 Asts: Irven Palencia 7 Pts: Kenny Rocacurva 18 Rebs: Jason Ballesteros 13 Asts: Ryan Costelo 9 Ynares Sports Arena, Pasig Referees: Severino Pingol, Allan Manzano, Bayani Francisco

This is the first playoff meeting between Caloocan and Pasig.

South Division

(1) Bacoor City Strikers vs. (8) Iloilo United Royals

At the end of the first half, Bacoor City had a 20-point lead on Iloilo. In the third quarter, Iloilo took the lead as the United Royals scored 32 points over Bacoor City's 9. With the game tied at 86–86, and with just under three seconds on the game clock, CJ Catapusan scored a three-point field goal to give Iloilo the lead with .17 seconds remaining. Bacoor City had no timeouts left as Chito Jaime attempted a half-court shot that hit the right side of the backboard, giving Iloilo the upset victory.^[5]

Head-to-head matchup
One PH Media Pilipinas TV June 13 8:00 pm Boxscore Iloilo United Royals 69–74 (OT) Bacoor City Strikers Scoring by quarter: 15–12, 14–9, 22–20, 14–24, Overtime: 4–9 Pts: Tony Ynot 16 Rebs: CJ Catapusan 13 Asts: CJ Catapusan 5 Pts: Jhan Nermal 24 Rebs: Jhan Nermal, Mark Yee 14 Asts: Joel Lee Yu 5 Strike Gymnasium, Bacoor, Cavite Referees: Edmar Avis, Rodel Brila, Bayani Francisco

This is the first playoff meeting between Bacoor City and Iloilo.

(2) Batangas City Embassy Chill vs. (7) Imus SV Squad

Marc Pingris made his return to Imus after only playing for the team in five games during the regular season.

Head-to-head matchup
One PH Media Pilipinas TV May 9 8:00 pm Boxscore Imus SV Squad 71–70 Batangas City Embassy Chill Scoring by quarter: 19–6, 21–16, 34–23, 17–25 Pts: Jimboy Estrada 27 Rebs: Jaymar Gimpayan 12 Asts: Marc Pingris 5 Pts: Juneric Baloria 21 Rebs: four players 5 Asts: MJ dela Virgen 6 Batangas City Coliseum, Batangas City Referees: Romel Alcoran, Severino Pingol, Allan Manzano

This is the second playoff meeting between Batangas City and Imus, with Batangas City winning the previous meeting.

Previous playoffs series

Batangas City leads 1–0 in all-time playoff series
2019 Batangas City Athletics 2, Imus Bandera 1 2019 Southern Division First Round

(3) GenSan Warriors vs. (6) Muntinlupa Cagers

Head-to-head matchup
Media Pilipinas TV June 10 6:00 pm Boxscore GenSan Warriors 60–67 'Muntinlupa Cagers Scoring by quarter: 18–19, 17–16, 12–14, 13–18 Pts: Jervy Cruz 11 Rebs: Kyt Jimenez 7 Asts: Mark Cruz 6 Pts: Manuel Masqueda 13 Rebs: John Amores 9 Asts: three players 3 Batangas City Coliseum, Batangas City Referees: Edmar Avis, Julius Tiquio, Severino Pingol

This is the first playoff meeting between General Santos and Muntinlupa.

(4) Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines vs. (5) Quezon Huskers

Head-to-head matchup
One PH Media Pilipinas TV August 14 8:00 pm Boxscore Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines 66–70 Quezon Huskers Scoring by quarter: 17–16, 10–15, 14–20, 25–19 Pts: Jaycee Marcelino 22 Rebs: Jayvee Marcelino 7 Asts: Judel Fuentes 4 Pts: Al Francis Tamsi 19 Rebs: Jason Opiso 7 Asts: John Karlo Casino 6 Quezon Convention Center, Lucena, Quezon Referees: John Louie Saripe, Ryan Bernardo, Jayson Vipiloso

This is the first playoff meeting between Zamboanga and Quezon.

Division Semifinals

North Division

(1) Pampanga Giant Lanterns vs. (4) Caloocan Batang Kankaloo

Head-to-head matchup
Media Pilipinas TV May 15 06:00 pm Boxscore Caloocan Batang Kankaloo 68–76 Pampanga Giant Lanterns Scoring by quarter: 16–26, 12–18, 20–19, 20–13 Pts: Reil Cervantes 16 Rebs: Gabby Espinas 11 Asts: Reil Cervantes, Jeramer Cabanag 3 Pts: Justine Baltazar 25 Rebs: Justine Baltazar 21 Asts: MJ Garcia 4 Strike Gymnasium, Bacoor, Cavite

This is the first playoff meeting between Pampanga and Caloocan.

(2) Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards vs. (6) San Juan Knights

Head-to-head matchup
One PH Media Pilipinas TV September 21 08:00 pm Boxscore San Juan Knights 97–99 (OT) Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards Scoring by quarter: 21–17, 18–24, 32–26, 18–22, Overtime: 8–10 Pts: Orlan Wamar 19 Rebs: Adrian Nocum 9 Asts: Orlan Wamar 5 Pts: Will McAloney 20 Rebs: Will McAloney 14 Asts: three players 5 Nueva Ecija Coliseum, Palayan, Nueva Ecija

This is the second playoff meeting between Nueva Ecija and San Juan, with Nueva Ecija winning the previous meeting.

Previous playoffs series

Nueva Ecija leads 1–0 in all-time playoff series
2022 Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards 2, San Juan Knights 1 2022 Northern Division Finals

South Division

(1) Bacoor City Strikers vs. (4) Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines

Head-to-head matchup
One PH Media Pilipinas TV September 27 08:00 pm Boxscore Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines 92–81 Bacoor City Strikers Scoring by quarter: 20–19, 28–14, 16–31, 28–17 Pts: Judel Fuentes 18 Rebs: Jaycee Marcelino 10 Asts: Jaycee Marcelino 6 Pts: Chito Jaime 20 Rebs: James Kwekuteye 8 Asts: Joel Lee Yu 6 Strike Gymnasium, Bacoor, Cavite

This is the first playoff meeting between Bacoor City and Zamboanga.

(2) Batangas City Embassy Chill vs. (3) GenSan Warriors

Despite Batangas City leading by 11 points early on, the game came down to the wire as General Santos caught up throughout the rest of the game. With under half a minute remaining, General Santos was trailing by two. Cruz first missed a layup but got back the ball and gave it to Sorela. Sorela attempted a corner three-pointer but was deflected by Importante and later became a shot clock violation against General Santos. After two made free throws from Ablaza, Joson missed his three pointer resulting in Batangas City winning the game and the series, thus making back-to-back Division Finals appearances.

Head-to-head matchup
One PH Media Pilipinas TV September 28 06:00 pm Boxscore Batangas City Embassy Chill 75–58 GenSan Warriors Scoring by quarter: 15–13, 12–16, 18–20, 30–9 Pts: Juneric Baloria 15 Rebs: Jeckster Apinan 15 Asts: Jeckster Apinan 6 Pts: John Wilson 15 Rebs: Mark Cruz 10 Asts: Nico Elorde 5 Nueva Ecija Coliseum, Palayan, Nueva Ecija

This is the first playoff meeting between Batangas City and General Santos.

Division Finals

North Division Finals

(1) Pampanga Giant Lanterns vs. (6) San Juan Knights

This was San Juan's first playoff home game of the entire season, due to the Knights being the 6th-seeded team. During the first three quarters, San Juan have shown dominance for the majority of the game, leading by as much as 19 points and entering the fourth quarter with a 13-point lead.

Pampanga, however, didn't stand back, as they would start the quarter with a 16–1 scoring run to take the lead with just over three minutes left, with eight of those points coming from Encho Serrano. Although Taywan scored a layup to tie the game, Pampanga then went on a 9–3 scoring run to finish the game. Encho Serrano won Player of the Game honors as the Giant Lanterns remain undefeated in the playoffs and went on to advance to their very first MPBL Finals appearance.

Head-to-head matchup
One PH Media Pilipinas TV September 30 06:00 pm Boxscore Pampanga Giant Lanterns 89–73 San Juan Knights Scoring by quarter: 28–25, 20–14, 19–16, 20–18 Pts: John Lloyd Clemente 15 Rebs: Allen Liwag, Louie Sangalang 10 Asts: Encho Serrano, MJ Garcia 5 Pts: AC Soberano 17 Rebs: Kenneth Villapando 6 Asts: Nikko Panganiban, Renzo Subido 5 Quezon Convention Center, Lucena City

This is the second playoff meeting between Pampanga and San Juan, with San Juan winning the previous meeting.

Previous playoffs series

San Juan leads 1–0 in all-time playoff series
2020 San Juan Knights 2, Pampanga Giant Lanterns 0 2020 Northern Division Semifinals

South Division Finals

(1) Bacoor City Strikers vs. (2) Batangas City Embassy Chill

Head-to-head matchup
One PH Media Pilipinas TV August 12 08:00 pm Boxscore Batangas City Embassy Chill 64–71 Bacoor City Strikers Scoring by quarter: 6–25, 27–13, 8–19, 23–14 Pts: Rhaffy Octobre 18 Rebs: Juneric Baloria 10 Asts: three players 3 Pts: Michael Cañete 15 Rebs: Jhan Nermal 12 Asts: Aaron Jeruta 3 Strike Gymnasium , Bacoor, Cavite

This is the second playoff meeting between Bacoor City and Batangas City, with Batangas City winning the previous meeting.

Previous playoffs series

Batangas City leads 1–0 in all-time playoff series
2022 Batangas City Embassy Chill 2, Bacoor City Strikers 1 2022 Southern Division First Round

MPBL Finals: (N1) Pampanga Giant Lanterns vs. (S1) Bacoor City Strikers

Head-to-head matchup
One PH Media Pilipinas TV July 22 06:00 pm Boxscore Pampanga Giant Lanterns 78–70 Bacoor City Strikers Scoring by quarter: 24–12, 20–26, 15–16, 19–16 Pts: Encho Serrano 18 Rebs: Justine Baltazar 18 Asts: John Bryle Bahio 5 Pts: Jhan Nermal 19 Rebs: Jhan Nermal 9 Asts: Aaron Jeruta 4 Laguna Sports Complex, Santa Cruz, Laguna

This is the first playoff meeting between Pampanga and Bacoor City.

References