Cone raves about Ginebra’s easy win

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel head coach Tim Cone admitted feeling anxious hours before tipoff of the Gin Kings’ Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup quarterfinals match against Magnolia last Saturday.

It didn’t help that he saw top seed and twice-to-beat defending champion San Miguel Beer fall prey to a famished No. 8 seed Terrafirma in the first game which forced a do-or-die.

Cone breathed a sigh of relief when the final buzzer sounded and Ginebra was ahead by a mile, propelling the No. 2 seed into the best-of-seven semifinals.

The decorated tactician was utterly surprised at how the Gin Kings destroyed the Hotshots, 99-77, in front of a good weekend crowd at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

“I’m totally gulat, man! I’m so gulat. I’m shocked we did this happen this quickly. That we’re able to beat them like we did,” Cone said.

But he was worried sick for most of the day. “I mean all day today I was like just dreading to come and play this game thinking about, “Oh no we got a knockout game on Wednesday, oh!” You know, you go to those emotions leading up to the game. And when the game starts you lock into the game. It was a tough day, in terms of trying to (manage) the nerves of coming in and playing especially against a team like Magnolia,” he said.

“They posed a lot of danger. For me, they are the most dangerous team out there outside of San Miguel. They have a proven track record. Their coach is tested. They’ve only been in the finals in the last conference. So, we had a lot to worry about coming into this game.”

Before hitting the court, Ginebra witnessed the Beermen absorb a 95-106 beating at the hands of the Dyip — the first time a bottom-seeded team forced a No. 1-ranked squad into a sudden death since NorthPort beat NLEX twice in the 2019 Governors’ Cup quarters.

“I think it was a good lesson for us when we saw that. It really kind of spiked us a bit because we saw that San Miguel lost and everybody was assuming San Miguel was gonna win,” Cone said.

“We got beat by Terrafirma too during the eliminations, so we knew how good they are. We’re not surprised as much as you know San Miguel was really heavily favored but that sent a message to us that if they’re heavily favored and they lost, and our game is more of a 50-50 game then we better bring our best game tonight if we gonna get through it.”

Play their A-game, the Gin Kings did. Ginebra even opened a 25-point gap in the one-sided Manila Clasico affair.

‘I’m totally gulat, man! I’m so gulat. I’m shocked we did this happen this quickly. That we’re able to beat them like we did.’