The 2024-25 PBA Commissioner's Cup opened up with new and familiar faces but in different settings.
In the curtain raiser, Jordan Heading's long-awaited PBA debut with Converge FiberXers resulted in a resounding 116-87 win over Terrafirma Dyip, while Hong Kong Eastern got its first win as an official guest team in this conference after defeating Phoenix Fuel Masters.
Converge wins in one-sided affair
A total masterclass on both ends of the floor was presented by Converge to notch their first win of the conference.
Import Cheick Diallo led the way for Converge with a solid double-double of 25 points and 16 rebounds on 84.6% from the field. Justin Arana was the top local scorer for with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Both were the main reasons why Converge dominated the paint scoring against Terrafirma with a count of 36-18.
Struggles continue for Terrafirma as they were not able to get enough production from their import Ryan Richards, who just put up ten points on an inefficient 31.3% clip from the field. The team also had a miserable shooting game compared to Converge, evidenced by the perimeter points. This was possible with Mike Nieto's 11 points with three triples in just 15 minutes.
For Heading, the 28-year old player tallied eight points, four rebounds and six assists in 24 minutes of action. He came off the bench and instantly provided offense through his drives and dished off well to his teammates, as he fitted well with the stacked guard/wings rotation of Converge.
"I think he really played well. He's slowly understanding what we want to do on both ends of the floor. I think for [a] first game, he exceeded our expectations," Atienza said, about Heading's first game with Converge.
In this game, Heading was also tasked to play some point guard duties in the second unit, a position that he's still learning, but is willing to take the challenge -- as it provides Converge some offensive versatility.
"I think as a point guard, there's still a lot of room for improvement. It's not my immediate position, but I can play it. And I'm going to get better at it if that's what Coach Charles needs me to do," Heading said.
It was also the debut of fellow Converge rookie Pao Javillionar, who had three points and four rebounds. On the other hand, new members of Terrafirma -- namely Terrence Romeo and Vic Manuel -- were not available for this game. Only rookie Mark Nonoy got to play for his new team in the PBA as he tallied 11 points on a poor 22.2% field goal percentage.
Eastern opens PBA campaign with a victory
After a slow start in the first half, Eastern was able to pull away in the last two quarters to get in the winning column.
As expected, players who have experienced what it's like to play in PBA were the catalysts in Cameron Clark and Hayden Blankley, combining for 43 points to lead the team. Glen Yang stuffed the stat sheet with an all-around performance of 13 points, six rebounds, and seven assists.
Being a newly-formed squad, Eastern's head coach Mensur Bajramovic believes that their participation in this conference should only make them a stronger squad, as they currently play in Hong Kong's local league and in the East Asia Super League (EASL).
"My biggest concern is we haven't played enough games together. In some moments, we missed our timing on defensive situations. But I hope we get better in each game we play," Bajramovic said.
Best player of the game Blankley also added that even though Eastern is not as polished as his former team Bay Area Dragons was, he remains confident that they can hang with the elite teams in the PBA.
"It's a very different team. That Bay Area team was blessed with some mainland Chinese players that were 6-foot-6 players and above. And this team, not so much, it's much more comparable to the height of Filipino players. Filipino teams can definitely challenge us without worrying about us just being bigger," Blankley mentioned about the difference of Bay Area and Eastern.
Meanwhile, it's the same old story for Phoenix, with import Donovan Smith and Jason Perkins accounting for 63% of their total points. The lone local besides Perkins who scored in double figures was Ricci Rivero with 10 points for the game.