GINEBRA coach Tim Cone didn’t need to be told that they needed to always bring their A-Game against powerhouse Bay Area in the Big Dance.
They didn’t do that in Game 2 and paid a big price.
“I think one thing that we learned is that we just started to feel like we just showed up and win,” Cone said after the Kings dropped an 82-99 loss to the foreign guest team seven days ago.
“We can’t do that against this team that’s way, way, too good and too big, too athletic, and too well-coached,” he added.
Whether the Kings could put those takeaways to heart will be known whey they square off anew with the Dragons today in Game 3 of their best-of-7 finals duel for the PBA Commissioner’s Cup crown at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.
The crucial match is set at 5:45 p.m., with the winner breaking the 1-1 tie in the race-to-4 series and moving halfway in its title bid in the mid-season tourney.
Cone said his wards were just simply outplayed by Bay Area in the second game.
“We didn’t have a whole lot of focus from the start, I felt,” Cone said. “They got everything they wanted, and we didn’t get anything that we wanted to do.
“They made the proper adjustment. They really disrupted our offense and we couldn’t get to our spots.”
The Ginebra team that showed up in that game was far from the squad that tamed the Dragons 96-81 in the finals opener on Christmas Day.
The Kings will count on import Justin Brownlee, reigning MVP Scottie Thompson, LA Tenorio, Japeth Aguilar, Christian Standhardinger, Jamie Malonzo, Stanley Pringle, and Jeremiah Gray.
“Series naman ito, so kami naman ang kailangan mag-adjust. Optimistic pa rin naman kami doon sa game plan ng mga coaches namin,” Thompson said.
Bay Area tactician Brian Goorjian said his players have already adjusted to their foes’ physicality.
“We are in a series in your country, the PBA and the rules that are played in Australia were different in the rules in America and the rules in America were different than the international rule, that was the first game in a finals series,” Goorjian said.
“We did not complain about the referees. All we try to do is figure out how the game is called and make the adjustments that was my job in between games.”
Reinforcement Andrew Nicholson, Hayden Blankley, Zhu Songwei, Kobey Lam, and Glen Yang will carry the fight for the Dragons.
“It’s definitely a motivation. I mean, losses mount up and you pretty much (wonder) are we going to beat this team?” posed Goorjian.
“All of these are positives. A lot of talk about young and learning and all of these. We’re here through that process to win this darn thing.”
