In the Governors’ Cup Finals’ most lopsided game thus far, the TNT Tropang Giga moved on the cusp of a successful title defense after a 27-point win over Barangay Ginebra.
In the aftermath of Barangay Ginebra’s Game 4 win over the TNT Tropang Giga that leveled the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup Finals at two wins apiece, TNT coach Chot Reyes spoke about how the momentum had clearly shifted to the side of the Gin Kings.
Reyes added that the onus was now on the Tropang Giga to regroup and seize back the momentum in Game 5. They certainly did that.
The Tropang Giga got off to a hot start and never allowed Ginebra to get back into the game as they scored a crushing 99-72 win to grab a 3-2 series lead. They can wrap up a successful title defense in Game 6 on Friday.
It was only 26-20 after one quarter, but by the start of the fourth, the scoreboard read 79 TNT, 48 Barangay Ginebra. Only a flurry of 4-point shots from Ginebra in the last two minutes kept the margin of victory from ballooning past the 30-point mark.
Defense, again, wins games
TNT coach Chot Reyes credited his team’s composure, as they quickly put their back-to-back losses in the past. The other part of this blowout win was TNT’s trade mark defense, which held Ginebra to its lowest point total of the series.
“First of all, we just had to keep our heads around us and not panic. When Ginebra won Game 4, I told you guys, some of you interviewed me after Game 4, and I said, before the series, if you tell me after four games that it was 2-0, then I’d be okay with that result, I’d be happy. I think that was the most important thing for us, not to panic and keep our heads around us so that we could make good decisions.
“I think that’s number one. Number two was just our focus on our strength, which has been our strength the whole tournament long, and that was our defense. I said, let’s go back to what got us here, and that is just playing great defense.
“Fortunately, the players responded. I thought Kelly (Williams) and Rey (Nambatac) gave us a huge lift starting the game for us. I think that was the key for us in this game, starting the game with that defense.”
TNT’s patented defense held Ginebra to only 32% shooting, with Game 4 heroes Maverick Ahanmisi missing all his seven shots to go scoreless and Stephen Holt shooting just 2-for-7 for 10 points.
An old veteran gets it done
Speaking of Kelly Williams, he was a surprise starter for the Tropang Giga, and he delivered. Williams was averaging just 1.7 points per game in the finals, but stepped up and pumped in seven points in the first quarter to help set the tone for the game. He eventually finished with 11 in 15 minutes, validating Reyes’ decision to insert him into the starting lineup.
“Just the coach’s intuition, I think, or instinct,” Reyes said when asked about the move. “I took a look at the numbers, and both Rey and Kelly had really bad plus-minus numbers for our team. I said, ‘I’m going to trust you to come back and contribute for us, and I’m going to start you.’ We told them yesterday in the team meeting, ‘I trust that you’re going to get the job done.’
“We’ve been together for a long time, Kelly and I. We’ve built that strong trust relationship, and I just told Kelly, ‘I’m going to trust you to come in because we need Kelly Williams. We need Kelly Williams for us to have a chance for us to be able to compete against a tough team.’
“We all know what Kelly can do, right? It’s just that he was just not in his usual game the entire series, so we just had a nice, good team conversation yesterday before practice. It was just very straightforward, and I told Kelly we’re not going to win the series without him contributing. He scored seven points (in the first quarter), I think he ended up with 11, but Kelly’s real contribution to us is his defensive ability and his energy. He does a lot of things for us defensively that’s very important in our scheme of things, so we hope he can sustain it some more for the rest of the series.”
Low mark for Brownlee
No other stat highlighted TNT’s suffocating defense more than the eight points across Justin Brownlee’s name. It was the first time in his PBA career that the decorated Ginebra import score less than 10 points in a game.
Brownlee shot a miserable 3-for-13 from the field, and with the game already out of reach, Ginebra coach Tim Cone pulled him out for good near the end of the third quarter.
Reyes, though, downplayed Brownlee’s history-making performance.
“I think we were fortunate he had an off night. We know that’s not going to persist in the next game. Coach Tim rested him early, kind of preparing him for a one step backward, two steps forward attack in the next game. We just need to be ready.
“We know he’s going to come out hard, as is the entire Ginebra team. We just need to make sure that we stay on our toes and be prepared for a big Ginebra fight back in the next game.”
Images from PBA Media Bureau.