The notion commonly heard in basketball is a win is a win, whether it’s by 1 point or 30.
In the PBA Philippine Cup, which employs a simple but debatable tiebreaker method, not being mindful of the margin of victory — or defeat — can prove costly for teams.
The current tournament uses what is called a "quotient system" as a way to break ties. A quotient, simply put, is the difference between the total points scored by a team and those scored by its opponents.
| PBA Philippine Cup standings | ||||
| Team | Won | Lost | Pct | Quotient |
| San Miguel | 5 | 1 | 0.83 | 8.3 |
| Rain or Shine | 4 | 2 | 0.67 | 7.5 |
| TNT | 4 | 2 | 0.67 | 2.5 |
| Blackwater | 4 | 3 | 0.57 | 0.4 |
| Phoenix | 4 | 3 | 0.57 | -6.7 |
| Star | 3 | 3 | 0.50 | 9.0 |
| GlobalPort | 3 | 3 | 0.50 | 2.5 |
| Alaska | 3 | 3 | 0.50 | 2.0 |
| Ginebra | 3 | 3 | 0.50 | 1.0 |
| Meralco | 2 | 4 | 0.33 | 0.2 |
| Mahindra | 1 | 5 | 0.17 | -12.0 |
| NLEX | 1 | 5 | 0.17 | -13.7 |
| Standings updated after Dec. 28, Wednesday games. Quotients are unofficial. | ||||
While winning as many games as possible is the primary objective, amassing a bigger quotient becomes just as crucial as collecting wins.
If the Philippine Cup ended today, for example, Rain or Shine and TNT would be tied with 4-2 records, but Rain or Shine would get the No. 2 seed because the Elasto Painters have a superior quotient. The Nos. 1 and 2 teams get a twice-to-beat advantage, while the Nos. 3 to 6 teams engage in a best-of-3 series.
Star, GlobalPort, Alaska and Barangay Ginebra have identical 3-3 records. In this scenario, Star would qualify for the best-of-3 playoffs, while Ginebra could miss the eight-team cut.
Alaska head coach Alex Compton had the quotient in mind when his team played GlobalPort in early December.
Compton and co. were well on their way to victory but he thought it necessary for his team to make one more basket just before the buzzer sounded. Alaska ended up winning 95-84.
He said he didn’t mean to maliciously run up the score. Compton even took the time to clarify to GlobalPort that the shot by Calvin Abueva was not meant to disrespect the game; the point differential was his only concern.
"(Last conference) we were tied 6-5 with Mahindra and Meralco. So we dropped down to sixth and we had to play Ginebra, which had a twice to beat, and it didn't work out for us. Whereas if we had a couple more baskets, we're in with a twice-to-beat and a change to go deeper," Compton said.
While teams want to win as big as possible, the flipside is they don't want to lose by a lot either.
Phoenix is sporting a winning record, but two losses by 44 and 19 points could come back to haunt the Fuel Masters.
Mahindra and NLEX still have a puncher's chance at advancing past the preliminary round, but their negative quotients might harm their odds.
Not all coaches are on board with the quotient system.
Barangay Ginebra's Tim Cone has been a vocal opponent of the tiebreaker, saying it's a "disservice" to teams that are eliminated.
In a tournament where a fraction of a point could determine who advances and who goes home, coaches such as Compton will do anything to make sure they put their team in the best position to win.
"I won't have any problem with any coach that does that to us," Compton said.
With Alaska sitting in eighth place and in danger of elimination, Compton knows that to stay alive his team needs to start winning — and winning big.
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