GINEBRA coach Tim Cone lamented his team’s sluggish play in Game One but was quick to move on, saying the blowout 109-82 loss to San Miguel Beer will not be an indication of how the rest series will be.
The Gin Kings fell to an early 35-12 deficit after the first quarter, fell to a hole as deep as 36 points and never quite recovered before a stunned crowd at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“We were horrible all the way through the game from start to finish, a disappointed Cone said as he sat down in the press room for the required post-game conference. “We weren’t ready.”
“And that’s on me. I should’ve gotten our guys ready,” he added.
[See Red-hot SMB delivers strong opening statement with romp over Ginebra]
But the champion coach stressed it didn’t matter how many points they lost, insisting it still counts for one win in a best-of-seven championship series.
“It’s one game. There’s no pogi points in winning by forty or thirty points in a series,” Cone said. “It’s only about Ws and Ls, and they’re one game closer to a championship and we’re one game farther back. But again, it doesn’t matter if you lose by thirty or one point. It’s all the same.”
“We know who we are. We know we can play,” he added. “We had a bad night tonight, they had a great night. They're very, very good and we're not very, very bad. We wouldn’t be here if we were.”
“We could talk about this game all we want, but the bottomline is we didn't have it tonight,” he added. “It's over with and we move on. We're not going to allow this game to define us.”
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