Barely surviving
Kings scrape past Painters to move to cusp of Finals berth; Beermen take second of three shots to oust Aces
Tim Cone is happy, and one can see and feel that he is also concerned at the same time. The Barangay Ginebra coach was a mix of emotions on Saturday night after what he described as a “hanging on by our fingernails” 75-72 win over Rain or Shine that gave the Gin Kings a twice-to-beat edge for the remainder of their PBA Commissioner’s Cup Final Four series at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
“We’re happy to be 2-1 up, but we’re going to have to battle,” Cone said after his charges nearly blew a 23-point lead at the half and after he watched his Kings lose composure in the stretch to barely survive. “We need more poise and a little bit more fight in us. We just didn’t respond well to what happened in the second half.”
After hitting almost everything in the first two periods, Ginebra’s offense almost conked out in the final half as it was held to just 39 points.
“They (Elasto Painters) picked up the defense and the physicality,” Cone said. “They picked up the defense and we have to be smarter than that for Game 4. We just held on by our fingernails [in winning this game].”
Justin Brownlee scored 25 points in the first half and ushered the Kings to a 46-23 lead, before Rain or Shine came out of the halftime break by scoring the first 10 points of the third period to quickly get back in the game.
Cone later on said that they got “too Justin-reliant” in the first two quarters. He didn’t mention that it was also Brownlee who bailed them out with 19 more points in the final half, counting 10 in the fourth.
What started as a high-scoring game for the Kings finished as the lowest-scoring contest thus far in the series, with James Yap missing two triple tries inside the final six seconds which could have taken the game into overtime.
“He usually makes that shot, I know him,” Cone said of his former gunslinger at San Mig/Purefoods. “We were very fortunate that he missed. He makes more than he misses.”
Weneed more poise and a little bit more fight in us TIM CONE Barangay Ginebra coach
The fourth game is slated on Monday at 7 p.m. at Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, where San Miguel on Sunday night takes the second of three chances to oust Alaska and become the first finalist.
Coming out flat the last time out and paying dearly for it, San Miguel Beer knows what it has to do in order to avoid what many feel was a game that was out of the question last week.
“Obviously, we didn’t have the energy [in Game 3],” Austria said. “You can’t do that, especially if you’re playing a team like Alaska.”
The Beermen, the defending champions, gave up 125 points and lost by 21 points, easily the best game of the Aces in the series and, hands-down, the worst form that the Beermen showed the entire week.
San Miguel committed 20 turnovers and this is one aspect of that game that Austria said decided the outcome.
“You can’t play that way,” he said.
Game 4 is slated at 7 p.m. and there’s no doubt that the Aces have some sort of momentum going.
More importantly, they are now armed with the belief they can beat the Beermen.
“Today was kind of our day,” Alaska coach Alex Compton said. “Wemade a bunch of shots and we had a bunch of bounces go our way. I just hope that we have many of these days.”
It was indeed Alaska’s day as Vic Manuel, despite playing with the flu, still went on to score 24 points and import Diamon Simpson, despite playing with just “a leg and a half,” contributing 21 and 13 rebounds against the mammoth San Miguel frontline.
The last time these two teams met in a series, San Miguel came from 0-3 down to win the last four games of the best-of-seven title playoffs for the 2016 Philippine Cup. That marked the first time in league history a team crawled out of a hole that deep to win the crown.
Alaska is in that same boat here as almost everyone has already conceded the first title series slot to the Beermen, who won the first two games with utmost authority.
“Obviously, we’re still down,” Compton went on after cutting the deficit to 1-2 with the win in Antipolo. “But I tell you what, I love my guys. I asked them to fight till the end and they did. I am just so proud of them.”