2018–19 MPBL season

The 2018–19 MPBL season, also known as the MPBL Datu Cup, was the second season of the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League. The regular season began on June 12, 2018 and ended on March 11, 2019. The playoffs then began on March 12, 2019 and ended on April 25, 2019 when the San Juan Knights defeated the Davao Occidental Tigers in five games in the 2019 MPBL finals.

This season saw sixteen expansion teams, nearly tripling its size from 10 to 26 teams. It also marked the league's national expansion, with five of those teams coming from Visayas and Mindanao. This resulted to the addition of divisions, dividing the entire league into the North and South Divisions, although this only affected playoff seeding and not the overall format of the season, with the playoffs itself expanding to sixteen teams, eight per division.

The opening ceremony took place at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City. The league also held its first ever All-Star Game at the SM Mall of Asia Arena on March 2, 2019, which saw the South Division beating the North Division with a score of 109–84.

Expansion
After a successful inaugural season, sixteen teams joined the league, its biggest expansion to date, bringing the a total of 26 teams. Metro Manila is the region with the most expansion teams at seven, those being the Makati Skyscrapers, Mandaluyong El Tigre, Manila Stars, Marikina Shoemasters, Pasay Voyagers, Pasig Pirates, and San Juan Knights. The Pampanga Lanterns joined from Central Luzon while the Bacoor City Strikers, Laguna Heroes, and Rizal Golden Coolers, joined from Calabarzon.

As part of the league's national expansion, the five remaining expansion teams came from either Visayas or Mindanao. The Cebu City Sharks from Central Visayas are the only expansion team from Visayas. The four teams from Mindanao are the Zamboanga Valientes representing the Zamboanga Peninsula, the Davao Occidental Tigers from the Davao Region, the GenSan Warriors from Soccsksargen, and the Basilan Steel from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (which later became Bangsamoro).

Mid-season, the MPBL side of the Zamboanga Valientes was relaunched and became the Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines following undisclosed management issues.

Introduction of divisions
Due to the much bigger size of the league, divisions were introduced to divide the teams into the North and South Divisions. Teams still play a single round-robin tournament as part of the regular season, but the playoff format was changed to accommodate the new divisions. The top eight teams from each division would advance to an expanded playoff tournament. Similar to the National Basketball Association (NBA), the champions from each division would face once another in what is dubbed the "national finals".

Name changes

 * The Bataan Defenders changed its name to Bataan Risers before the start of the season.
 * The Makati Skyscrapers changed their team name to Makati Super Crunch in November 2018.
 * The Valenzuela Classic its team name to Valenzuela Idol Cheesedogs in July 2018, but was later reverted back in November 2018.
 * The Zamboanga Valientes changed its team name to Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines in 2019.

Roster regulation changes
To ensure that the league remains balanced, a new rule was added so that teams were limited to only one Filipino-foreigner per roster, that player must also not be taller than 6'4" (193 cm). The player is classified as Filipino-foreigner if the player is a Filipino of foreign descent, regardless of being a Philippine passport holder. The new rule, however, caused some criticism from fans and players alike.

Format
The 26 teams played in a single round-robin format, playing one game against all other teams in the league for a total of 25 games. In each gameday, a series of games is played in a designated home arena, with the home team usually playing in the final game.

The playoffs were expanded from eight teams to sixteen teams in this season. The top eight teams in each division advanced to a four-round, single-elimination playoffs, playing in best-of-three series in the first three rounds, and a best-of-five series in the national finals, with homecourt advantage alternating between the higher seeds of each series in the first two rounds.

Results
Not all games are in home–away format. Each team plays every team once. Number of asterisks after each score denotes number of overtimes played.

Playoffs
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 home court advantage, the higher seeded team, are shown in italics.

First round
In the first round, the first- and second-seeded teams host games 1 and 3 of its respective division, while the third- and fourth-seeded teams host game 2.

North Division first round

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South Division first round

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Division semifinals
In the Division Semifinals, the highest seeded team hosts games 1 and 3, while the second-highest seeded team hosts game 2.

North Division semifinals

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South Division semifinals
Due to Davao Occidental advancing after game 2, Batangas City instead hosted game 3.


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Division finals
In the Division Finals, the higher-seeded team hosts games 1 and 3 in its respective division, while the lower-seeded team hosts game 2.

North Division finals

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South Division finals

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MPBL finals
In the MPBL finals, the higher-seeded team hosts games 1, 2, and 5, while the lower-seeded team hosts games 3 and 4.

Both teams finished the season 20–5, but the Davao Occidental Tigers held the homecourt advantage for the finals, as they have defeated San Juan in their regular season matchup, but the San Juan Knights eventually won the championship in 5 games.


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All-Star Game
The first ever MPBL All-Star Game took place on March 2, 2019 at the SM Mall of Asia Arena where the South All-Stars prevailed over the North All-Stars, 109–84. Jeff Viernes of the Batangas City Athletics was named the first ever MPBL All-Star MVP.

Pre-game events
Before the game itself, multiple pre-game events were held. These include the Executives' Game, 2-Ball Challenge, Three-Point Shootout, and Slam Dunk Competition. The champions of these events are as follows:
 * Executives' Game Champions: North Division Executives
 * 2-Ball Challenge Champions: Pamboy Raymundo and Byron Villarias (Bataan Risers)
 * Three-Point Shootout Champion: Gary David (Bataan Risers)
 * Slam Dunk Competition Champion: David Carlos (Makati Super Crunch)

Awards
Most of the league's individual awards made their debut this season, which were given out before game 4 of the 2019 national finals at the Filoil Flying V Centre in San Juan. The Finals Most Valuable Player and Coach of the Year were given out at the conclusion of the series.

Events

 * March 11, 2019 – The Bacoor City–Parañaque replay was forfeited in Bacoor City's favor, marking the first time in which a game was forfeited in any manner.

Media
This season marked the second of three years of ABS-CBN's broadcasting rights of the league, as games were aired on S+A channel. In addition, Fox Sports Philippines started broadcasting games this season. The league also began streaming all of its games on its official Facebook page.