User:TheGoldenArmor375/2019 MPBL Datu Cup Playoffs

The 2019 MPBL Datu Cup Playoffs is the second postseason tournament of the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League, and the first under a new playoff format. The postseason tournament will begin on TBD days after the end of regular season on TBD, and will end at the conclusion of the 2019 MPBL Datu Cup Finals.

Overview

 * The Batangas City Tanduay Athletics enter the year-long season as the defending champions, winning the 2018 MPBL Anta Rajah Cup championship.

Format
Within each division, the eight teams with the most number of wins qualify for the playoffs. All brackets are fixed, there shall be no reseeding. The first three rounds of the playoffs are in a best-of-three series. A team that first earn two wins win the series and advances to the next round. The best-of-five series shall be played in the finals. The first team to win three games would win the championship. Not all games would be in a home-and-away format as the league implements a schedule which has two games played per game day, meaning, the second game only is the game which has the home-and-away basis. The venues might be different per series. But in the finals, the home-and-away basis will be observed with a 2–2–1 format. The top 4 teams will hold the homecourt advantage for the divisional playoffs. Additionally, the team with the league's best regular-season record will hold the advantage for the entire playoffs, including the MPBL Finals. For the first three rounds of the playoffs, the team with the homecourt advantage will host Games 1 and 3 (if necessary). For the Finals, the team with the better regular season record will hold the homecourt advantage and will host Games 1, 2, and 5 (if necessary) on its homecourt.

Playoff qualifying
On January 7, 2019, the Manila Stars clinched the first berth for the playoffs. Currently, the Bataan Risers are also playoff-bound after securing playoff berth last January 17.

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 home court advantage, the higher seeded team, are shown in italics and are marked in asterisks.