Goorjian does a ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’ in Finals

BRIAN GOORJIAN pulled something from his sleeves that’s normally unheard from most coaches—a sort of “when in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

“All we tried to do was to figure out how the game is going to be called and make the adjustments,” Goorjian told the post-match press conference after the Hongkong Bay Area Dragons fought back hard against the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Gin Kings, 99-82, in Game 2 to level their Philippine Basketball Association Commissioner’s Cup Finals series at 1-1.

Unlike in Game 1 where the Dragons groped to lose the opener, 96-81, on Christmas Day, the visitors were more composed and calculating in Game 2 to the dismay of the pro-ginebra crowd that jampacked

Smart Aranata Coliseum.

“Tonight we defended without fouling, we made the adjustments according to the PBA rules of playing ‘D [defense]’ without fouling and to move forward, we’ve got to stay on that page,” he said. “That’s my job in between games—to do the adjustments.”

“We are in a [best-of-seven finals] series in your game at your country, in the PBA. If the rules that I play in Australia were different in the rules in America, the rules in America were different in the international rules— and that was our first game in this finals series,” Goorjian added.

Goorjian is considered the most successful coach in Australia, which he led to an unprecedented bronze medal finish at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.

And he’s showing what stuff he’s made of in the Finals.

“We did not complaint about the referees,” said Goorjian, stressing that his team has never done that since their first game in the Commissioner’s Cup.

“I want to say to everybody that I think there’s a confusion on what was said after the game [1]. First of all, No. 1, no one on our team is sick, no one on our team is hurt. It was no excuse that they kicked our ass [in Game 1],” he said. “No. 2, everything is first—first road game, first hotel meal, first basket and first final game.”

Andrew Nicholson had 30 points and 15 rebounds in Game 2, with Hayden Blankley and Songwei Zhu also contributing well to the win with 25 and 17 points, respectively.

Import Justin Brownlee was his usual disciplined self and led Ginebra with 32 points and 11 rebounds.

Game 3 returns to the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City on January 4.