Playing on All Saints’ Day, Barangay Ginebra fittingly rose from the dead in the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals with a solid victory in Game 3.
For the first two games of the Season 49 PBA Governors’ Cup Finals, the TNT Tropang Giga put on a defensive clinic, limiting Barangay Ginebra San Miguel to only 86.0 points per game while racing to a 2-0 series lead.
On Friday night, on a rare All Saints’ Day game day, the Gin Kings came back from the dead by giving the Tropang Giga a dose of their own medicine in a low-scoring 85-73 victory that was as much a solid defensive effort as it was a display in leadership skills from two wily Ginebra veterans.
Anything you can do…
Ginebra’s 85-point output was actually worse than their scoring average in the first two games. The difference this time was they held the Tropang Giga to their second-lowest point total this conference in a reversal of roles.
“Oh, we certainly played a lot better and played better defense,” noted Ginebra coach Tim Cone. “I think coming from the San Miguel series, we were just a little worn out and not as focused as we should be. And the two games kind of woke us up. And so hopefully this wakes us up and gets us going through this series.”
Indeed, Ginebra did a much better job taking TNT’s top guns out of the game. While Rondae Hollis-Jefferson got away with 24 points, he had to take 26 shots. Meanwhile, RR Pogoy and Calvin Oftana combined to shoot just 7-of-23, while Rey Nambatac has all but disappeared after his breakthrough finals debut in Game 1.
But with just one rest day in between Games 3 and 4, Ginebra will have to move on and recover quickly.
“This one won’t mean much tonight if we don’t get the one on Sunday,” Cone added. “And obviously we had to expend a lot of energy to win this one tonight. And hopefully we can find a way to get that energy to play on Sunday.
“You know, it’s tough when you’re in the finals and you’re playing Wednesday, Friday, Sunday. It’s a real grind for the players. And I was just apologizing for Scottie (Thompson) because I’ve been playing him and Justin (Brownlee) and Japeth (Aguilar) so many minutes.
“And just like they’re a wet towel, I’m wrenching out all the water and they’re getting real dry. There’s not much water left in that rag. So we’ll just see what we can do on Sunday.”
These guys look familiar…
To buy more time for his main men, Cone turned to a couple of Ginebra veterans to provide quality minutes. LA Tenorio and Joe Devance hardly played in the first two games, but in Game 3, they both made their presence felt.
“We’re just trying to manage our lineup and our rotation,” Cone said. “One of the things we did, we started LA tonight just to lengthen our rotation.
“And I thought he did a tremendous job leading us early and getting us into what we wanted to do. He just did a tremendous job along with Scottie. And I thought that was a real change for us that helped.
“We have a style of play that we wanted to come out with that he was very comfortable with that we’ve done in the past and played like that. Try to get back to a little bit of our old identity of being a defensive team first.
“He understood that. We wanted to set that tempo from the beginning of the game. He made some really key baskets and got a couple of steals. Most importantly, he played the game the way we wanted to play it and the tempo that we wanted to set. That was really crucial.”
“Kuya LA is a winner,” added Thompson, who scored 15 points. “He knows how to win. That’s why siya ang nagse-set ng tone coming into this game.”
Devance wasn’t even supposed to be back in a Ginebra jersey after retiring last year, but here he was in Game 3 playing on a bad knee for 15 minutes as Aguilar’s chief back-up.
“He’s obviously playing very limited minutes and very limited stretches,” Cone said of Devance. “He can only play one or two minutes at a time, maybe three at the most. Then he needs to be rested. He’s taking painkillers to handle his knee.
“He’s doing everything he possibly can to play and to be ready. His teammates see that and they recognize that. I think that’s really a huge message that he’s sending to our team.
“He was really intense tonight. He made some good decisions and helped us on the defense. If he can play 8, 10, 12 minutes a game for us, that’s the time that Japeth needs to stay fresh on the floor.”
‘He should be in the NBA’
When asked why Brownlee, who only made his first three-point shot of the finals in the fourth quarter of Game 3, has struggled with his outside shot, Cone was straightforward.
“I think if you’re going to have Rondae Hollis-Jefferson guarding you for 35 minutes of the game, you’re going to struggle.”
Cone then shared an interesting anecdote that illustrated just how good Hollis-Jefferson is as a defensive player.
“I remember talking to Erik Spoelstra and telling him that Rondae was here,” Cone recalled. “He goes, ‘Wow, that guy’s an elite defender.’ He was known as an elite defender in the NBA. That’s why he was in the NBA, because he was such an elite defender and elite stopper. I don’t care who you are. If you’re an NBA guy, you bring out Paul George or someone like that, he’s probably going to struggle against Rondae also.
“Rondae just doesn’t slow down. He’s amazing. we look at video and watch him on video. And the things he does just amazes us. He’s by far the best import I’ve ever seen in terms of focusing on defense and on hustle.
“You know, we have had a lot of prolific imports. Guys who scored 100 points. Guys, you know, average big numbers. But to have a guy like this that comes in and just plays so hard on the defensive end and in the hustle side of the game, I don’t think we’ve had too many imports like that. Maybe Marqus Blakely or Roselle Ellis, but not to that level. Not anywhere.
“And that’s why he was an NBA guy, man. I don’t know why he’s not in the NBA. He should be in the NBA, Rondae. He is special.”
Images from PBA Media Bureau.