DEFENDING champion San Miguel Beer battles No. 4 Converge FiberX, while No. 3 Barangay Ginebra meets No. 6 NorthPort in a pair of exciting best-of-three quarterfinal matches in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Philsports Arena in Pasig.

The Beermen and the FiberXers take the floor at 3 p.m., while the Gin Kings and the Batang Pier collide at 5:45 p.m.

Both matches are expected to be close, with the winners moving closer to a semifinals appearance in this season-ending, import-flavored conference.

“It’s gonna be a battle, for sure,” said San Miguel import Devon Scott in an interview posted at the official PBA website.

Scott, who played his very first PBA game against Converge last Oct. 21, hopes to do better than in his debut.

“I take a lot on my shoulders from that game, why we lost. It was my first game with the team, first game in the PBA so I was kind of trying to figure it out,” added Scott, who finished with 16 points, 15 rebounds and six assists in 102-106 setback.

“But I’ve got more (PBA) games (with SMB now) under my belt.”

San Miguel is also a much-improved team now than the one which lost to Converge.

The Beermen are bigger and better now with the return of MVP June Mar Fajardo and many-time scoring leader Terrence Romeo.

The two veterans were greatly responsible as San Miguel completed a four-game sweep of its last eliminations assignments.

The Ginebra-NorthPort matchup is also expected to provide a lot of fireworks on the first day of the playoffs.

The third-seeded Kings defeated the Batang Pier, 122-105, in their elimination round meeting and finished three full games ahead in the team standings.

But Ginebra coach Tim Cone ws the first to admit that the Kings can’t take the Batang Pier lightly, especially with his former players now on the other side.

‘We have eight former players in that team. They know well what we’re doing,”said Cone, referring to former GInebra players Arvin Tolentino Kevin Ferrer, Jeff Chan and Prince Caperal.

“We had a tough time against them the last game.”