CAN the country’s most popular team succeed in its mission to defend home territory against an equally formidable foreign foe?
That will be known when Ginebra squares off with Bay Area on Sunday, Jan. 15, in the deciding match of their best-of-7 finals duel for the PBA Commissioner’s Cup crown at the cavernous Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.
The deciding match for all the marbles in the mid-season tourney is set at 5:45 p.m.
Dragons coach Brian Goorjian said playing before an expected SRO crowd should inspire his squad to get the job done and become the first guest team to win a title in the pro league since Nicholas Stoodley in 1980.
“What an honor to be going to this. I can just imagine sending this to everybody back home. I’ve never been… Look out in front, look at the venue, listen,” Goorjian said after his charges edged the Kings 87-84 in the sixth game last Wednesday night. “Now, again, what’s coming up next is something I’m gonna treasure and my team will treasure.
“We’re in a country that loves basketball and the stadium’s packed. We got 50,000 people waiting for us? That’s why we’re here. That’s why we’re breathing,” he added.
Bay Area will count on the likes of prolific import Myles Powell, who suited up the last time despite still nursing a torn toe tendon injury; Hayden Blankley, Glen Yang, Zhu Songwei, Kobey Lam, and 7-foot-5 center Liu Chuanxing.
Ginebra tactician Tim Cone said he would have wanted the winner-take-all tiff to go on as scheduled tomorrow but will play with the cards he’s dealt with.
“I would have preferred it to be Friday. I’m a little disappointed it’s Sunday, but it’s out of our control, so we’ll worry about it on Sunday,” Cone said. “That’ll give our guys, I guess, a little more time to rest, and we’ll think what we’ll do with Powell, and like I said, it’s out of our control.”
Game 7 was moved to Sunday due to clamor from fans.
With Ginebra bidding to rule the same edition of the import-spiced tilt for the first time since 2018, Conference top reinforcement Justin Brownlee, reigning MVP and Best player of the Conference Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar, Christian Standhardinger, LA Tenorio, Jamie Malonzo, and Stanley Pringle will carry the fight for the Kings.
Cone was pleased with how Ginebra put the clamps on Powell — the Kings just simply could not make their shots that spelled the big difference in Game 6.
“Did it look like we had a hard time? I’m serious, did it look like we had a hard time? I’ll have to look at the video to see,” Cone posed. “We only gave up 87 points, they average like 115 when Powell is playing. So, we did what we wanted to do defensively. We just didn’t knock down shots on the offensive side.
“We had him where we wanted, but they had a great shooting night from three, almost 50-percent. We shot 20-percent. That was the difference in the game.”
