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 playoff streak in the MPBL.
The Bataan Risers missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, having made the postseason since 2018.
Excluding non-playing seasons, the Bicol Volcanoes and Bulacan Kuyas also missed the playoffs for the first time in a playing season. Bicol made the postseason in 2020 while Bulacan made the postseason since 2018.
The Laguna Krah Asia and Parañaque Patriots missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, currently tied for the longest playoff droughts in the MPBL including non-playing seasons.
Excluding non-playing seasons, Parañaque missed the playoffs for the third consecutive playing season.
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.
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 and 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.
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.
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]
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]
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]
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]
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.
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.
