The 2024 MPBL playoffs was the postseason tournament of the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League's 2024 season, the league's sixth overall, and the fifth under the 16-team format. The postseason tournament began on October 5, four days after the conclusion of the regular season, and ended on December 7, 2024.
For sponsorship reasons, this year's playoffs is also known as the 2024 MPBL Playoffs presented by Xtreme and MPBL Partylist.
Overview
Updates to playoff appearances
The San Juan Knights entered the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season and also clinch the best record in the league for the first time since 2020.[1]
The Quezon Huskers entered the playoffs for the second consecutive season and also clinch the best record in the South Division for the first time in franchise history.
The Batangas City Tanduay Rum Masters entered the playoffs for the sixth consecutive season, currently the longest playoff streak in the MPBL.
The Mindoro Tamaraws missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season, the longest active playoff drought in the league and tied for the longest playoff drought overall.
Due to their departures from the league:
Makati missed the playoffs after making the postseason last season.
Pasig City missed the playoffs for the first time since 2019.
Bacoor City missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, having made the playoffs since 2019.
Notable events
This marked the first time since 2018 and the second time overall that a Cavite team doesn't make the playoffs.
The San Juan Knights, South Cotabato Warriors, and Zamboanga Master Sardines joined the Batangas City Tanduay Rum Masters as the only teams to have made at least five playoff appearances in the MPBL.
This is the first time that Western Visayas doesn't have a team make the playoffs since the region's entry into the league in the 2019–20 season.
The San Juan Knights became the first team in league history to clinch the top seed in two seasons, with the first coming in 2020.
Division finals
The San Juan Knights and Batangas City Tanduay Rum Masters became the first teams to make the penultimate round of the playoffs five times.
Additionally, San Juan became the first team to make five division finals, as well as make five consecutive division finals.
The San Juan–Pampanga matchup in the North Division finals marked the first division finals rematch in league history, having previously met in 2023.
National finals
The Pampanga Giant Lanterns became the second team in league history to make two national finals and also the second to do so in back-to-back seasons, both following the 2020 San Juan Knights.
The Quezon Huskers became the first expansion team from the professional era to reach the national finals.
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.
^ abcBatangas City (1.132), Biñan (0.950), and Zamboanga (0.931) are ranked based on head-to-head point quotient.
^ abParañaque wins tiebreaker over South Cotabato based on head-to-head record.
Bracket
Teams in bold advanced to the next round. Teams in italics have homecourt advantage for the series. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its division, while the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round.
After a close first quarter, San Juan were able to outscore Rizal by nine to lead by ten points going to the second half. San Juan didn't back down since then, leading by as much as 22 points and eventually winning the game.
Michael Calisaan led all scorers with 16 out of 47 points coming off San Juan's bench. Dexter Maiquez and Reynel Hugnatan also scored double-digits for San Juan. Alwyn Alday and Marco Balagtas led Rizal's scoring with 13 points each, with the latter also recording a double-double with 10 rebounds.
The end of the third quarter saw the game being separated by one point. After Valandre Chauca tied the game at 63, San Juan went on an eight-point scoring run as the Knights won by 12 points and advance to the division semifinals.
Michael Calisaan went 9-for-10 from the field to lead all scorers with 22 points alongside eight rebounds and two steals. Nikko Panganiban and Orlan Wamar Jr. also scored double digits while Agem Miranda led the assists department with 9. For Rizal, Val Chauca, Alwyn Alday, and Riego Gamalinda recorded double-digit scoring in the losing effort, with Alonzo also recording nine rebounds.
Caloocan held a 20-point lead during the second quarter, but as the game went on, Manila began catching up, decreasing the Batang Kankaloo's lead to just one point. The latter part of the fourth quarter saw multiple ejections, including the leading scorers for both teams in Jeramer Cabanag and Greg Slaughter.
In the final moments, as Caloocan led by three, Jorey Napoles got fouled as Joco Tayongtong made one of two free throws to make it a two-possession game with 4.7 seconds remaining. Joshua Torralba hit a buzzer-beating three-pointer to end the game as Caloocan won game 1 by one point.[3]
As Slaughter recorded two unsportsmanlike fouls in game 1, he will be suspended for game 2. Manila attempted to file an appeal but was rejected by the league.[4]
Biñan led by as much as 12 points during the game and were leading by four points with 1:35 remaining. However, South Cotabato would go on a 7–0 run to take the lead and eventually win the game.
