The 2015 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors' Cup, also known as the 2015 PLDT Home TVolution-PBA Governors' Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the third and last conference of the 2014–15 PBA season. The tournament began on May 5, 2015 and ended on July 17, 2015. The tournament allows teams to hire foreign players or imports with a height limit of 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) for the top eight teams of combined results of the Philippine Cup and Commissioner's Cup, while the bottom four teams will be allowed to hire imports with no height limit.[1] The teams were allowed to hire an additional Asian import with a height limit of 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m).[2]
| 2015 PBA Governors' Cup | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Duration | May 5 – July 17, 2015 |
| TV partner(s) | Local: Sports5 TV5 AksyonTV Fox Sports International: AksyonTV International |
| Finals | |
| Champions | San Miguel Beermen |
| Runners-up | Alaska Aces |
| Awards | |
| Best Player | June Mar Fajardo (San Miguel Beermen) |
| Best Import | Romeo Travis (Alaska Aces) |
| Finals MVP | June Mar Fajardo (San Miguel Beermen) |
| PBA Governors' Cup chronology | |
| PBA conference chronology | |
Format
The tournament format for this conference is as follows:[3]
- Single-round robin eliminations; 11 games per team; Teams are then seeded by basis on win–loss records.
- Top eight teams will advance to the quarterfinals. Ties are broken among head-to-head records of the tied teams.
- Quarterfinals (higher seed with the twice-to-beat advantage):
- QF1: #1 seed vs #8 seed
- QF2: #2 seed vs #7 seed
- QF3: #3 seed vs #6 seed
- QF4: #4 seed vs #5 seed
- Semifinals (best-of-5 series):
- SF1: QF1 vs. QF4 winners
- SF2: QF2 vs. QF3 winners
- Finals (best-of-7 series)
- Winners of the semifinals
Elimination round
Team standings
| Pos | Team | W | L | PCT | GB | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alaska Aces | 8 | 3 | .727[a] | — | Twice-to-beat in the quarterfinals |
| 2 | San Miguel Beermen | 8 | 3 | .727[a] | — | |
| 3 | Rain or Shine Elasto Painters | 7 | 4 | .636[b] | 1 | |
| 4 | GlobalPort Batang Pier | 7 | 4 | .636[b] | 1 | |
| 5 | Star Hotshots | 6 | 5 | .545[c] | 2 | Twice-to-win in the quarterfinals |
| 6 | Barako Bull Energy | 6 | 5 | .545[c] | 2 | |
| 7 | Meralco Bolts | 5 | 6 | .455[d] | 3 | |
| 8 | Barangay Ginebra San Miguel | 5 | 6 | .455[d] | 3 | |
| 9 | Kia Carnival | 5 | 6 | .455[d] | 3 | |
| 10 | TNT KaTropa | 5 | 6 | .455[d] | 3 | |
| 11 | NLEX Road Warriors | 3 | 8 | .273 | 5 | |
| 12 | Blackwater Elite | 1 | 10 | .091 | 7 |
Notes:
Schedule
Results
Bracket
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals (Best-of-5) | Finals (Best-of-7) | ||||||||||||
| (#1 twice to beat) | ||||||||||||||
| 1 | Alaska | 114 | ||||||||||||
| 8 | Ginebra | 108 | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Alaska | 3 | ||||||||||||
| (#4 twice to beat) | ||||||||||||||
| 5 | Star | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 4 | GlobalPort | 73 | 94 | |||||||||||
| 5 | Star | 126 | 101 | |||||||||||
| 1 | Alaska | 0 | ||||||||||||
| (#2 twice to beat) | ||||||||||||||
| 2 | San Miguel | 4 | ||||||||||||
| 2 | San Miguel | 99 | 102 | |||||||||||
| 7 | Meralco | 106 | 86 | |||||||||||
| 2 | San Miguel | 3 | ||||||||||||
| (#3 twice to beat) | ||||||||||||||
| 3 | Rain or Shine | 1 | ||||||||||||
| 3 | Rain or Shine | 134** | ||||||||||||
| 6 | Barako Bull | 132 | ||||||||||||
a The number of asterisks denotes the number of overtime(s) occurred.
Quarterfinals
(1) Alaska vs. (8) Barangay Ginebra
(2) San Miguel vs. (7) Meralco
(3) Rain or Shine vs. (6) Barako Bull
June 27 |
| Rain or Shine Elasto Painters 134, Barako Bull Energy 132 (2OT) | ||
| Rain or Shine wins series in one game |
(4) GlobalPort vs. (5) Star
Semifinals
(1) Alaska vs. (5) Star
(2) San Miguel vs. (3) Rain or Shine
Finals
Awards
Conference
- Best Player of the Conference: June Mar Fajardo (San Miguel Beermen)
- Best Import of the Conference: Romeo Travis (Alaska Aces)
- Finals MVP: June Mar Fajardo (San Miguel Beermen)
Players of the Week
| Week | Player | Ref. |
|---|---|---|
| May 5–10 | JC Intal (Barako Bull Energy) | [4] |
| May 11–17 | Dylan Ababou (Barako Bull Energy) | [5] |
| May 18–24 | Joseph Yeo (Barako Bull Energy) | [6] |
| May 25–31 | RR Garcia (Barako Bull Energy) | [7] |
| June 1–7 | Jeffrei Chan (Rain or Shine Elasto Painters) | [8] |
| June 8–14 | Terrence Romeo (GlobalPort Batang Pier) | [9] |
| June 15–21 | Paul Lee (Rain or Shine Elasto Painters) | [10] |
| June 22–28 | Peter June Simon (Star Hotshots) | [11] |
| June 29 – July 5 | Vic Manuel (Alaska Aces) | [12] |
Imports
The following is the list of imports, which had played for their respective teams at least once, with the returning imports in italics. Highlighted in gold are the imports who stayed with their respective teams for the whole conference. Players with an asterisk indicates the Asian imports.
Import handicapping
| # | Team | Philippine Cup | Commissioner's Cup | Total | Import height limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rain or Shine Elasto Painters | 1.8 | 0.4 | 2.2 | 6'5" |
| 2 | Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters | 2.4 | 0.8 | 3.2 | |
| 3 | Alaska Aces | 1.2 | 2.4 | 3.6 | |
| 4 | San Miguel Beermen | 0.6 | 3.6 | 4.2 | |
| 5 | Purefoods Star Hotshots | 4.2 | 1.2 | 5.4 | |
| 6 | Meralco Bolts | 3.6 | 2.0 | 5.6 | |
| 7 | Barangay Ginebra San Miguel | 3.0 | 3.2 | 6.2 | |
| 8 | NLEX Road Warriors | 6.0 | 1.6 | 7.6 | |
| 9 | Barako Bull Energy | 5.4 | 2.8 | 8.2 | Unlimited height |
| 10 | GlobalPort Batang Pier | 4.8 | 4.0 | 8.8 | |
| 11 | Kia Sorento/Carnival | 6.6 | 4.4 | 11.0 | |
| 12 | Blackwater Elite | 7.2 | 4.8 | 12.0 |
- Philippine Cup final ranking comprises 60% of the points, while the elimination round ranking in the Commissioner's Cup is 40%. The four teams with most points gets to have an import of unlimited height.