Cone rues endgame lapses
Games today: (Smart Araneta Coliseum) 3 p.m. — NorthPort vs Meralco 6:15 p.m. — Phoenix vs Ginebra
Barangay Ginebra San Miguel head coach Tim Cone isn’t amused at all at how his players committed mental mistakes down the final stretch of their first game in the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup.
Although the Gin Kings did score a win, Cone warns his wards to stay on their toes all the time.
He doesn’t want Ginebra to flirt with a late collapse when it faces a dangerous Phoenix side tonight at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Gin Kings shoot for a second straight victory against a foe looking to get into the win column in the scheduled 6:15 p.m. main-game of the double-header playdate. Ginebra is coming off a 113-107 win over Rain or Shine last Friday behind Jamie Malonzo’s career night.
But Cone after the game expressed worry about how the Gin Kings handled the endgame of the match that they controlled for most of the four quarters.
Ginebra saw its 13-point lead heading into the payoff period dwindle into just four with 16 seconds left. “We’re a veteran team we should be better than that,” Cone said.
“We know that, the guys know that. We’ll clean that up, coming into the next game and the next few games we’ll certainly clean that up. They’ll clean that up. I won’t have to (remind them). They’ll clean that up on their own.” Malonzo, who still has a swollen left eye following a restaurant fight a few weeks back, is expected to once again be the focal point of the Gin Kings’ offense following a 32-point eruption last game.
However, Ginebra might still miss the services of starting guard Scottie Thompson.
He skipped the team’s opener due to a lingering back injury.
Cone has no exact timeline for his return. “It’s a huge challenge and we hope we can get him back at some point. (But) it’s one of those issues where you can’t put a timeline on it. We don’t know when he’s gonna be back,” Cone said.
“This was an issue that was bothering him in the FIBA Asia qualifiers. It happened a lot when we were in INSPIRE camp, having issues with his back and was sitting out most of the practices. Fought his way through the games and we tried to limit his minutes in the games hoping that he wouldn’t get too bad but it got worse. Now we’re paying for that here in terms of, now he’s missing games for Ginebra.”
Phoenix, on the other hand, tries to rebound from a 120-124 debut game loss to NorthPort last Friday despite a furious comeback attempt.