MANILA – Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings aim to move closer to the 2020 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup crown as they tangle with TNT Tropang Giga in Game 3 of their best-of-seven finals at the AUF Sports Arena and Cultural Center in Pampanga tonight.
The Kings are now halfway through the coronation following their Game 2 victory on Wednesday behind the endgame heroics of Earl Scottie Thompson and LA Tenorio.
Kings head coach Tim Cone admitted that it was an ugly victory for his squad, which fell behind for most part of the game before clawing their way back down the stretch to escape with a win.
“It was certainly a struggle for us all game long,” Cone said. “I thought Talk ‘N Text dominated us for more than three quarters of the game and we were able to make a run in the end.”
“But we keep talking about that. We were talking about staying calm in this storm. We have to create our storm of emotion that we didn’t have. It was really hard for us to keep that emotion for some reason or another,” he added.
“But when they started stretching the lead out, we didn’t panic. We weren’t forcing things. We were still taking our time and try to methodically work back in the game,” the winningest PBA mentor furthered.
Cone also said that his squad could have taken for granted the absence of TNT’s Filipino-American guard Bobby Ray Parks Jr. due to an injury.
“Maybe the absence of Bobby Ray kind of let us down emotionally a little bit. It’s always hard. In the back of your mind, they thought Bobby Ray is not there, we’re going to have an easier time,” Cone said.
“The way TNT was playing, they were playing with such vigor. They were so vigorous in everything they were doing, their offense and defense, they were really making up for Bobby Ray Parks’ absence with effort both on defense and offense,” he added.
“For us to think that it was going to easier without Bobby Ray Parks was really wrong thinking on our part and that’s something we are going to have to try to correct as we move forward,” he noted.
The Kings, who captured the 2019 PBA Governors’ Cup title last January, are eyeing their second crown, first All-Filipino since 2007. The Tropang Giga, on the other hand, aim to hoist another PBA title for the first time since 2015./PN
