Calvin Oftana-MARLO CUETIO/INQUIRER.net
Defending champions TNT and Barangay Ginebra will try again in the PBA Governors’ Cup final on Wednesday.
Coach Tim Cone promptly left the series-tying 106-92 triumph last Sunday behind him as the Gin Kings now have a shorter race with their best-of-seven showdown and the Tropang Giga now have to fight for two wins.
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“All we managed was to even the series,” said the experienced coach. “Now it’s 0-0. We can’t live on the last two games and we just feel good about them. We have to keep moving forward and think future-oriented.”
Cone believes the two-day break before Game 5, again at 7:30 p.m. in the fabled Big Dome, will be a change for both Japeth Aguilar and Justin Brownlee, who have worked for the crowd favorites in this series.
The tireless Brownlee, to no one’s surprise, has been Barangay Ginebra’s strongest weapon so far, averaging 23.5 points per night. Aguilar is close behind as the best local with 13.2. The rest they were able to take advantage of between games would allow both to go into the next game feeling refreshed.
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The defense paused
“Giving Japeth and Justin a break is huge. Remember that Japeth basically has no real backup. Isaac (Go, who is injured) is supposed to be his replacement, so he needs to play a lot of minutes,” Cone said.
“We’re going really hard on Japeth, pushing, pushing, pushing,” he continued. “He’s such a great person, he never gets upset, but we pushed him hard to keep going and it’s been a difficult role for him so far.”
For Poy Erram, one of TNT’s steadiest players in this clash, the key is to regain the defensive efficiency that he believes let down his team in their last meeting.
“It seems like we forgot our calling card, which is our defense,” Erram said. “That’s really all it’s about, plus we don’t know where our guy is and we’re not aware of the (player) rotations.”
With four games played, TNT remains the statistically superior shooting team with 45.7 percent to Ginebra’s 44.6 percent. But the crowd favorites are better off with the four-point shot as their weapon by a 4-1 margin.
While an adjustment in approach is likely in Game 5, don’t expect the Kings to start looking for four-point shots just yet.
“I’ve said it before, the reason I don’t like it is because I don’t like that it’s just a shooting game. “The game is about more than just shooting 3s or 4s,” Cone said.
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“It’s about getting to the rim, there’s defense, there’s play execution,” Cone explained. “There’s so much more to the game… and I think the young players take the key away from us when we do that all the time, then we encourage them to just be 3 or 4 point shooters when we want to, that they are more.” , I want them to be more.” INQ