TIM Cone was disappointed for failing to capitalize on Justin Brownlee's big night as Barangay Ginebra lost 118-113 to NLEX on Friday night at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
The bemedalled PBA coach had no other ways to put it, calling the loss a huge 'waste' after the prolific import dropped 46 big points in a losing effort.
“You wasted a great performance by Justin,” Cone lamented afterwards.
Brownlee already had 26 points in the first half and then exploded for 14 in the final quarter in an explosive night for the Gilas Pilipinas naturalized player.
READ: Bolick's timely six-point burst helps NLEX steal win from Ginebra
But the scoring outburst failed to translate to a victory for the Kings as the Road Warriors closed out the game with a 12-21 run, a run which includes the go-ahead three-pointer by Robert Bolick over the outstretched arms of RJ Abarrientos which gave NLEX the lead for good, 115-113.
Cone said engaging the Road Warriors in a toe-to-toe scoring battle wasn't the way to go as he'd rather see his team lock down defensively.
“If we came up too much with an offensive type of game, I would prefer 30 points by Justin and hold the other team down rather than having us back and forth, and deal with a lot of back and forth scoring,” he said.
“That’s a little bit frustrating night," he continued. "We scored 113 points and we should have won the game and that didn’t happen tonight. So we’re a little bit upset about it.”
But the Ginebra coach is not taking anything away from NLEX.
“You have to tip your cap to them (Road Warriors), they made great plays, they got to the rim, they made their shots in the perimeter and they played great in the last 2-3 minutes of the game and we didn’t."
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