The Tropang Texters and the Nationals, both playing under the banner of business-sportsman Manny V. Pangilinan, are currently on a tear and are sitting atop the leaderboard after dominating their opponents halfway into the elimination round.

Smart-Gilas so far is giving the PBA teams all they can handle as it remains undefeated at the top with a 4-0 slate. It clearly raised its stock after putting on an unbelievable performance in its last game against perennial league contender San Miguel Beer.

The Nationals had installed themselves as the team to beat after manhandling the Beermen by 41 gigantic points Saturday, 109-68, their biggest winning margin ever as a team.

‘’We’re a capable team and we worked so hard to achieve this so far. We’re proving that we can win against PBA teams. I’m very satisfied so far with our improvement as a team,’’ said coach Rajko Toroman of his squad’s successful run thus far in the PBA as a guest team.

On the other hand, after dropping its opening game to Gilas, Talk ‘N Text steamrolled past its next four opponents for four straight wins to gain solo second place at 4-1. The Texters easily trounced erstwhile undefeated Rain or Shine, 99-78, Sunday to wrest solo second from the Elasto Painters.

‘’It’s a great run so far, but hopefully, we can play even better in our next games. We’re headed to the peak of our schedule with Alaska and the three San Miguel Corporation teams, Ginebra, San Miguel and B-MEG, coming up so it’s going to be a tough ride onwards. We need to be at our best and our fullest of strength,’’ said Reyes.

Meanwhile, the planned purchase of Phoenix Fuel to the Barako Bull franchise is in serious jeopardy as San Miguel Beer officially filed a change of team name to Petron for next conference.

If the proposed name change is granted, there will be a conflict of interest as both brands will promote fuel.

In order for Phoenix to be given a go-signal for the purchase, it needs a two-third vote of the board, meaning seven out of 10. A PBA board meeting is scheduled on Friday to tackle the matter at hand.

Barako Bull, who is on a leave of absence this conference has already agreed to sell its franchise to Phoenix, paving the way for the oil firm to enter the league.

Meanwhile, the league suspended referee Boy Cruz after committing some technical mistakes in officiating the Alaska-B-MEG tussle Sunday. Cruz called a game-changing foul on Roger Yap, while LD Williams attempted a dunk with under three minutes left. It turned out Yap didn’t lay a hand on Williams and the latter just cramped up. Cruz also had a some bad calls down the stretch causing his suspension.

Jeric Lopez, Manila Standard Today