‘We weren’t just locked in as much’

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GINEBRA coach Tim Cone admitted his squad was outplayed by defending champion TNT, likening the Tropang Giga to a devastating storm in the opening match of the Big Dance last Sunday night.

“They embarrassed us. Game 1 of the series, they were locked in, and we weren’t just locked in as much as we would have liked to be,” Cone said after the Kings absorbed an 88-104 loss in Game 1 of their best-of-7 finals showdown for the PBA Governors’ Cup title. “They took a lot of what we wanted to do away from us.

“We shot the ball poorly, we’re 2-of-21 from the three-point line so just one of those games. You hate to have it happen in the first game of a championship series,” he added.

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Before a record crowd of 11,021 at the Ynares Center in Antipolo, the usually deadly Ginebra quintet fired blanks with a sordid 9.5 percent shooting from deep.

The Kings showed the way from beyond the arc from the group phase to the semifinals with a 37.2 percent clip.

In what turned out to be an embarrassing first game in the titular battle, only former MVP Scottie Thompson and prized rookie RJ Abarrientos accounted for the two triples that Ginebra knocked down. They combined for 2-of-10 from threes.

Star import Justin Brownlee was 0-of-2, although he hit a four-pointer, while Maverick Ahanmisi and Stephen Holt both went 0-of-3 from the rainbow country.

Their foes’ bread and butter—outside shooting—was not lost on TNT tactician Chot Reyes.

“We know the strength of Ginebra. We are a very data-driven team,” Reyes said. “We looked at the numbers and we focused really on that, taking away their strengths and making sure that we lean on what their strengths really are, which is our ability to stop teams.”

Brownlee had 23 points, seven rebounds, and six assists for the Kings while Japeth Aguilar added 14 markers and six boards.

Ralph Cu had 13 while Holt and Ahanmisi combined for 22 for Ginebra, which only got seven and five points, respectively, from Thompson and Abarrientos.

Fans can expect Cone and the Kings to battle back hard in Game 2 set for tomorrow at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

‘We’re going to have to turn around and move on and see what we can do to change our fortunes in Game 2. We weren’t locked in. We weren’t locked in the whole game,” Cone said.

“They beat us up individually, one-on-one, and really embarrassed our defense. We’ll see what we can do about it.”

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