ALTHOUGH his charges have taken full control of their Last Four duel with NorthPort, Ginebra coach Tim Cone is not one to write off the Batang Pier just yet.”
This team has always been a good team about moving on. It can be hard to move on from wins because you kind of want to live in those wins, but you’ve got to move on from them and keep—you know, it’s a cliche, I know it, but you’ve just got to keep taking each game at a time,” Cone said. “You do that through staying disciplined mentally and really just focusing on the process of what makes you successful and not looking to the end result.”
“So, these guys have done a tremendous job so far of doing that, but again, the series is not over,” he added.
Cone spoke after Ginebra blasted hapless NorthPort 127-100 in Game 3 of their best-of-7 semifinals showdown last Sunday night in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
By handing the Batang Pier another sound beating, the Kings gained a commanding 3-0 lead in the race-to-4 series.
Having been into many cage wars in the pro league, Cone is convinced NorthPort, which emerged as the No. 1 seed after the eliminations, is far from done.
“You can see, like a series can turn on a dime, like what happened with the TNT and Rain or Shine. A key guy goes down in Jason Castro,” Cone said, referring to the veteran playmaker’s season-ending injury. “Rain or Shine puts up a big fight and gets Game 3 and now it’s a completely different series.
“So, we are cognizant of that and we’re trying to make sure that doesn’t happen to us over here.”
Returning forward Jamie Malonzo showed the way for Ginebra with 25 points and eight rebounds while star import Justin Brownlee chimed in 22 markers, eight boards, and eight assists.
The likes of Japeth Aguilar (17), Scottie Thompson (15), RJ Abarrientos (10), and Troy Rosario (10) also made big contributions to the Kings’ dumping of the Batang Pier.
Cone has guarded optimism Ginebra can finish off NorthPort in the fourth game set for tomorrow at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“It’s all coming together right now,” he said. “We’ll just ride the wave as long as we can. Hopefully, right through the finals and into the championship but there’s a lot of basketball left.”
