Tim Cone says Ginebra Kings need to get better

WITH the championship euphoria still very much in their bodies, the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings struggled in the early goings and found a way to win in the endgame before pulling off a tough 104-97 victory over GlobalPort last time out.

Such practice is never being encouraged by multititled coach Tim Cone, whose team was on the brink of defeat against a Batang Pier team playing without its top gun — Terrence Romeo.

“I just known through experience you can’t get away with those things for the long haul. You can’t. You could lose to teams you’re not supposed to lose to and suddenly, you’re in a bad position for the playoffs and you don’t make a run to the finals. This is something we need to get better at. We need to get ourselves fired up right from the very start of the basketball game and play,” said Mr. Cone.

For three and a half quarters, the Gin Kings were groping for form until a late push led by LA Tenorio spearheaded the team’s breakaway in the final minutes of the fourth period.

Mr. Cone said he won’t mind losing a game to make the team realize that it can’t afford to play matches such as this one.

“That’s what teams from championships do. They sleepwalk for three and a half quarters, then win the game down the stretch. This is something we really want to avoid. In my experience, I’ve seen it with teams coming in after the championship, they feel like showing up and win. They don’t play until they really have to. I’m very disturbed by that. We might be better losing this basketball game to wake us up that we can’t do that. Because that will encourage us not to do it again,” added Mr. Cone.

“I’m OK with the win, but I’m not happy with the way we played.”

The Gin Kings played for the first time since coming off the Christmas break and was not in peak form.

Worse, the team missed the services of three key players – Joe Devance, Sol Mercado and Art dela Cruz — who are all nursing injuries.

“There’s no doubt we missed the presence of Joe Devance to settle us down and get to our offense where he’s so good at. We missed the defense of Sol Mercado that could have been on (Stanley) Pringle or (Sean) Anthony. We could throw him on somebody. We need those two guys back,” added Mr. Cone. —