GAMES TOMORROW
(PhilSports Arena, Pasig)
5 p.m. – NLEX vs. Rain or Shine
7:30 p.m. – Magnolia vs. TNT
GINEBRA dumped a game but fading Rain or Shine five to bag a precious goal in the season-ending meet last Sunday night.
But the Kings have to trek an even difficult path to the Promised Land—something that coach Tim Cone admitted—they still have to hurdle perennial contender and All-Filipino favorite San Miguel Beer.
“I just think it’s really a toss-up. But I still think that you have to go through San Miguel to win a championship in the All-Filipino and they’re going to be in our bracket, so we have to get through them,” Cone said. “But even before we even start thinking about that, we just have one game to play and that’s just what we’re going to focus on.
“It’s just one game and that’s the one we have on Friday. So, anything beyond that is something that we really don’t want to talk about. We don’t want to talk about where we’re going,” he added.
Cone spoke after his charges tripped the Elasto Painters 98-80 to finish the eliminations with an 8-3 mark and clinch a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals of the PBA Philippine Cup.
The Kings will duke it out with the Converge FiberXers in the Last Eight on Friday, June 20, at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.
But even when Ginebra makes good use of its win-once incentive, the Kings will cross paths with the No. 1 seed Beermen—if and when they also take care of business and dethrone defending champion Meralco on the same day.
That explains why Cone is taking a cautious approach, convinced the sport’s time-tested mantra still works—one game at a time.
To achieve that, Ginebra must show up with an unpredictable attack anchored on team play.
“We want to talk about how we’re going to get there and right now, it’s just that one game we got to play and we’re getting prepared as we can for one game,” Cone said.
“Our whole idea is to be unselfish. So, we’re not going to lean on one guy all the time to try to lead us. It could be RJ’s (Abarrientos) night, it could be Scottie’s (Thompson) night, it could be Stephen (Holt), it could be Japeth (Aguilar), and Jamie (Malonzo). We don’t try to pinpoint someone to say, come out and have a big night.”
Cone’s squad showed just that against Rain or Shine, with Holt showing the way with a game-highs of 27 points and 12 rebounds, with four assists to boot while Aguilar supplied 18 markers, 10 boards, and two dimes.
Malonzo and Abarrientos also chimed in 15 and 11 points, respectively for the Kings.
“If you’re playing a seven-game series, you got to have different guys every night. You can’t have the same guy trying to do it,” Cone said. “Even like when we had Justin (Brownlee), it was the same idea. Whoever’s going to have that night, we’re going to live on that guy.”
Cone and Ginebra’s fortitude should really be put under the microscope as the playoffs begin.
