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[av_heading heading=’Kings warned of Bolts’ rise in finals Game 2 ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY ADRIAN STEWART CO
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Sunday, October 15, 2017
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MANILA – Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings aims to maintain its aggressive play as it guns for a 2-0 lead over Meralco Bolts in Game 2 of the PBA Governors’ Cup best-of-seven finals tonight at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
Kings head coach Tim Cone cautioned his players from getting carried away by their wire-to-wire 102-87 Game 1 victory over Bolts on Friday night at the Quezon Convention Center in Lucena City.
“Last time we played Meralco (in the 2016 PBA Governors’ Cup finals), they won Game 1 and we ended up winning the championship. That’s a cautionary tale for us,” said Cone.
“You take everything after Game 1 with a real grain of salt. This is not representative of anything as the series goes on,” he added. “We have to prepare for Meralco’s response on Sunday.”
The 19-time PBA champion coach added that they were just lucky in the series opener that Bolts struggled to connect from its outside shots, which was the latter’s weapon all conference long.
“They looked a little rusty. They didn’t look real sharp. They’re coming off a four-game winning streak and a sweep of a series (against Star Hotshots),” said Cone. “We just got them on a night where they may not be totally prepared.”
Bolts head coach Norman Black, for his part, said their subpar game on Friday night was not due to their long layoff since finishing off Hotshots last week but on their poor shot selection.
“It did not have to do anything with rust,” Black said. “We shot poorly from the perimeter. Uncharacteristically, we took so many outside shots. Credit goes to Ginebra’s defense but at the same time it was bad shot selections.”
Black also said that, heading into tonight’s match, they will work on their extra passes to get the ball inside to their big men despite the zone defense thrown at them by Kings./PN
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