THE Holy Week break raised concerns on whether defending champion Ginebra could bring its A-Game against TNT in the opener of the Big Dance.
On Easter Sunday and the pro league’s 48th anniversary, the Kings, the country’s most popular ball club, rose to the challenge, surprising even coach Tim Cone.
“To be totally honest, I didn’t know if we had done a good job of preparing for this game for those 10 days,” Cone said. “I was questioning myself. I was questioning whether we should take Good Friday off.
“I was questioning if we had taken too much time or we weren’t working hard enough,” he added.
Cone spoke after his charges proved too much for the Tropang Giga, scoring a 102-90 victory in Game 1 of their best-of-7 finals duel for the PBA Governors’ Cup crown.
Naturalized Filipino Justin Brownlee notched a game-high 31 points that he laced with 12 rebounds and four assists for Ginebra, while Jamie Malonzo backed him up with 21 markers, eight boards and four dimes.
Christian Standhardinger had 16 points and 11 rebounds, while Stanley Pringle added 11 points. Reigning MVP Scottie Thompson also finished with a triple double of 10 markers, 13 caroms, and 11 feeds as the Kings took a 1-0 lead in the race-to-4 battle for the season-ending tourney’s title.
Cone admitted he was anxious if his team could come out sharp after last seeing action on March 29 in Game 3 of its semifinals sweep of San Miguel Beer.
“(There were) a lot of questions going on throughout the 10 days and so, I was not 100 percent sure we were gonna play good tonight,” Cone said.
“But the guys came out really fired up to start the game, I thought, and set a good tone in the beginning of the game.
“I was kind of surprised, to be honest with you and then, they were just able to carry the fight all the way through for 48 minutes. I was worried about our game shape, whether we’d lose game shape (after) 10 days,” he said.
“I was worried about our rotations. But it all came together well, surprisingly, and we were able to win.”
The second game of the series is set tomorrow at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, with Ginebra seeking to grab a commanding 2-0 edge.
Import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson paced TNT with 30 points, 20 rebounds and five assists, while Mikey Williams had 23 and two.
Calvin Oftana had 16 markers and six boards for the Tropang Giga, who lost big men Justin Chua (knee injury early in the first quarter) and JP Erram (fouled out) in the match.
