FRIDAY will be the third time Chot Reyes and Tim Cone will battle in a Game 7 of a PBA finals.
And when the confetti falls down at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum after the 49th Season Commissioner’s Cup champion has been determined, one of them will be one up against the other when it comes to winning finals Game 7s.
Reyes and Cone are actually 1-1 as far as winner-take-alls in a title series is concerned.
Chot gets first blood
Reyes first won over Cone in a Game 7 in the 2008-09 Philippine Cup when Talk ‘N Text defeated Alaska, 93-89, on February 11, 2009. Mac Cardona had 23 points on his way to being adjudged as Finals MVP.
Incidentally, Jayson Castro played in that Game 7 and delivered 19 points, eight rebounds, and eight assists. Castro, of course, won’t be playing in Friday’s match due to a ruptured right patellar tendon tear.
Current TNT assistant coach Ranidel de Ocampo was also a player back then and he had 12 points and 11 rebounds.
LA Tenorio was also in that Game 7, but was on the losing end while playing for the Aces. He had 10 points and seven assists in the losing effort. The now 40-year-old will either be on the bench or on the floor for Barangay Ginebra on Friday.
Cone bounces back
Cone later evened things out with Reyes in the 2012 Commissioner’s Cup where he guided B-Meg to a 90-84 overtime win over Talk ‘N Text on May 6, 2012.
The game will be remembered in the PBA annals for Denzel Bowles’ heroic performance where he sank two crucial free throws in the final seconds to force overtime, with the Llamados eventually claiming the victory. No one from that B-Meg side will be on Friday’s Game 7.
As for TNT, aside from Castro and de Ocampo, also in that game was Kelly Williams, who played for 14 minutes and grabbed five rebounds. The 43-year-old will once again play a Game 7 on Friday, being part of the Tropang Giga frontcourt rotation.
Castro and de Ocampo had a meager outing in that Game 7, with the former scoring only five points, though he also had four assists, while the latter contributed just three points and four rebounds.
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