There are personalities on both sides that make this finals series between TNT Tropang Giga and Barangay Ginebra tantalizing one.
After a condensed schedule that began a little over two months ago, we’ve arrived at the homestretch of the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup. It’s finals time once again, and the basketball gods have blessed us with a tantalizing series between the TNT Tropang Giga and the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Gin Kings.
It’s the second straight time the two sides will meet in the Governors’ Cup Finals after the Tropang Giga bested the Gin Kings, 4-2, in the 2023 edition. There was no Governors’ Cup last season, so this rematch was two years in the making.
There will be another time and place to do a deep dive on how these two teams match up based on statistics and data analysis, but for this piece, I’d like to focus on three particular match-ups that I will be closely observing.
Tim Cone vs. Chot Reyes
Perhaps no other tandem of champion PBA coaches knows each other better than Chot Reyes and Tim Cone.
It’s been written and retold several times over that Tim Cone gave Chot Reyes his first coaching break in the PBA when he hired the latter as an assistant coach in 1989 with the defunct Alaska franchise. The two wouldn’t collaborate again until 2023 when Reyes brought Cone in to help him run Gilas Pilipinas. And after Reyes stepped down in August of that year, Cone took over.
In terms of head-to-head coaching battles in the finals, it turns out the two are pretty evenly matched. Since 1993, when Reyes first became a head coach in the PBA, both coaches have faced each other six times in a finals, and both have won three times. So this series will be a tiebreaker.
Reyes won in the 1994 Commissioner’s Cup, 2002 Philippine Cup/All-Filipino, and 2008 Philippine Cup; while Cone won in the 1996 Philippine Cup/All-Filipino, 2003 Invitational, and 2012 Commissioner’s Cup.
Scottie Thompson vs. RR Pogoy
They’re different types of shooting guards, to be sure. Iskati is more of a playmaker and rebounder who can also stroke it from the outside. Meanwhile, RR makes a living as a versatile scorer, capable of hurting you with a turnaround shot, pull-up jumper, or triple.
What they do have in common is their vitalness to their respective teams’ campaigns. It’s hard to imagine what TNT’s offense, only 11th-best as it is in the Governors’ Cup Cup at 98.8 points per game, would look like without Pogoy’s 13.8ppg (second-highest on the Tropang Giga) and 40% shooting on 3-point shots. By the same token, where would Ginebra be without Thompson’s playmaking, hustle, and his all-around numbers of 13.7ppg, 6.3rpg, and 5.7apg (third highest among locals)?
Both also served together on Gilas Pilipinas in last year’s World Cup, and both are considered among the best guards in the PBA right now.
While other players like Jayson Castro, Calvin Oftana, and Poy Erram for TNT and Stephen Holt, Japeth Aguilar, and R-Jay Abarrientos for Barangay Ginebra will also have their say in how this series goes, RR and Iskati will arguably exert the most influence on their respective teams.
Justin Brownlee vs. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson
They have been the two most consistent and, quite frankly, best imports in the Governors’ Cup. They have also posted generally similar statistics thus far:
- 28.0ppg, 12.9rpg, 6.4apg, and 2.9spg with a single-game high of 45 for RHJ.
- 28.2ppg, 9.2rpg, 5.8apg, and 1.6spg with a single-game high of 51 for JB.
In a way, like in the case of Reyes and Cone, this series could also be considered a tiebreaker for both imports.
As mentioned earlier, this is the second straight Governors’ Cup finals for TNT and Ginebra, and by extension, RHJ and JB. And a little over a year ago, Brownlee and Hollis-Jefferson faced off again with another type of championship on the line: the Asian Games gold medal in Hangzhou, China. Of course, we all know what happened there: Brownlee and Gilas bested Hollis-Jefferson and Jordan to walk away with the country’s first men’s basketball gold medal in 61 years.
Brownlee is a smooth, explosive scorer who can simply take over a game in crunch time if he so chooses. He’s made hitting game-altering triples a habit.
Hollis-Jefferson does not look as elegant with his herky-jerky moves and unorthodox shooting form, but his NBA pedigree is always on display. He has the ability to hit tough shots against even the best defenders.
The question now is, which import will rise to the occasion over the next two weeks?
Banner Image from PBA Media Bureau.