TARGET ng Barangay Ginebra na tapusin na ang kanilang semifinal series kontra San Miguel Beer at maisaayos ang titular showdown sa TNT sa PBA Governors’ Cup ngayong Linggo sa Araneta Coliseum.
Nakatakda ang laro sa alas-7:30 ng gabi kung saan hangad ng Ginebra ang unang back-to-back wins sa serye at makabalik sa finals.
Kinuha ng Kings ang 3-2 bentahe sa best-of-seven semis kasunod ng 121-92 panalo noong nakaraang Biyernes sa larong bumuslo ang tropa ni coach Tim Cone ng 54.8 percent mula sa field, nagbigay ng 31 assists at gumawa ng anim na turnovers lamang.
“Thirty-one against six, that’s really, really good. It’s not something you’re gonna do every night and tonight we were able to do it,” wika ni Cone matapos ang laro.
“Hopefully, we could come up close to doing that in the next game,” dagdag pa ni Cone. “It’s not gonna be something we regularly do, but when we do we play a special game and tonight we played a special game and that was reflected in the score.”
Sa kabila nito, aminado si Cone na ang makaulit ay mas madaling sabihin kaysa gawin. “Again, can we follow it up?
That’s the big question,” he quickly pointed out. “It’s really hard to follow it up against a team like San Miguel.”
Si Cone ay may magandang dahilan upang mag-ingat sa SMB dahil ang huli ay may kakayahang bumawi mula sa pagkatalo.
“That’s why it’s so hard in the playoffs,” ani Cone. “I mean, I keep telling our team that the hardest win in a playoff is after you’ve won. That’s the hardest because the other team is gonna come back with adjustments, with more fire, a different mindset, like we did today, we had a different mindset.
“They’re gonna come back with that. If there are two teams that are fairly equal, you’re gonna have a series like this.”
Ang susi para sa Ginebra, ayon kay Cone, ay ang ilabas ang main strength nito at panatilihin ang magandang depensa laban sa SMB, na nalimitahan sa 44.2 percent shooting at napuwersang gumawa ng 19 turnovers, dalawang araw lamang matapos ang 131-121 panalo sa Game 4.
“They’re just so gifted, offensively, and so they play to their strength and their strength is they’re a great offensive team and so they play there,” ayon kay Cone.
“We’d like to think we’re more of a defensive team and that’s where our strength is. When we go out there and try to play their game, we’re gonna find ourselves in trouble and that’s what happened in Game 4.”
Ang maaaring makaapekto sa kampanya ng Beermen na maitabla ang serye ay ang walang katiyakang status ni starting point guard Jericho Cruz, na nagtamo ng right ankle sprain sa kaagahan ng fourth quarter ng Game 5.
CLYDE MARIANO
