2023 MPBL Playoffs

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.

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.
* 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 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 franchise history.
* The Iloilo United Royals, Makati OKBet Kings, and Pasay Voyagers entered the playoffs for the first time since 2020.
** Excluding non-playing seasons, Iloilo and Pasay entered the playoffs for the second consecutive playing season.
* The Caloocan Batang Kankaloo and Imus SV Squad entered the playoffs for the first time since 2019.
* The Bacolod City of Smiles, Quezon City Toda Aksyon, Rizal Golden Coolers, Sarangani Marlins, and Valenzuela XUR Homes Realty Inc. missed the playoffs after making the postseason last season.
* 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.
* 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 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.

Division standings

North Division

South Division

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

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.

This is the first playoff meeting between Pampanga and Marikina.

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

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.

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

(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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

This is the first playoff meeting between Zamboanga and Quezon.

Division semifinals

North Division

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

This is the first playoff meeting between Pampanga and Caloocan.

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

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

South Division

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

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.

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.

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

South Division finals

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

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

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

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

References

{{2023 MPBL season by team

playoffs
MPBL playoffs