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.
| 2018–19 MPBL season | |
|---|---|
| League | Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League |
| Sport | Basketball |
| Duration | Regular season: June 12, 2018 – March 11, 2019 Playoffs: March 12 – April 8, 2019 Finals: April 11–25, 2019 |
| Number of games | 364 (regular season) |
| Number of teams | 26 |
| TV partner(s) | S+A Fox Sports |
| Regular season | |
| Top seed | Bataan Risers |
| Season MVP | Gab Banal (Bacoor City) |
| Playoffs | |
| North Division champions | San Juan Knights |
| North Division runners-up | Manila Stars |
| South Division champions | Davao Occidental Tigers |
| South Division runners-up | Batangas City Athletics |
| Finals | |
| Champions | San Juan Knights |
| Runners-up | Davao Occidental Tigers |
| Finals MVP | Mike Ayonayon (San Juan) |
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.