ANTIPOLO – Barangay Ginebra played to win on Friday night against Blackwater, and, in the process, drew sister team San Miguel in the PBA 50th Season Governors’ Cup quarterfinals.
The Gin Kings led from start to finish to defeat the Bossing, 101-96, in the final game of the elimination round to finish Group B with a 5-5 win-loss record.
The Gin Kings ended with a similar win-loss mark as Phoenix Super LPG, but they got the higher seed of No. 3 due to a better point differential, setting up a quarterfinal showdown with the Beermen.
In the days leading up to Friday’s playdate, fans speculated that Ginebra might attempt to lose on purpose to avoid a playoff against San Miguel, seen by them as a tougher opponent than No. 1 seed NLEX.
The Gin Kings would've still made the quarterfinals vs NLEX even after a loss to Blackwater, for so long as the margin was under 24 points.
But Ginebra coach Tim Cone said he would rather win the game, even if that meant facing San Miguel - a team they usually meet deeper into the playoffs.
He described facing SMB in the quarterfinals as “consuelo de bobo” during the postgame press conference.
“You fight your way into the playoffs and your reward is you have to play San Miguel. I think once you get into that thing where you start choosing, it’s just like bad karma or whatever,” said the 25-time PBA coach.
“I’ve always felt that through the years, you play the game the way you’re supposed to play, you play it hard and you play it to win, and then you let the cards fall where they may and you take care of business of what’s in front of you,” said Cone.
Contrary to perception by fans, Cone said NLEX, Group B’s No. 1 and the supposed team it will face had Ginebra landed at No. 4, is still a tough team to beat in the quarterfinals.
“I don’t think there was much of a choice between NLEX and San Miguel in the first place. NLEX has been playing great, great basketball all conference long. They beat us in a practice game, so it wasn’t really a team that we weren't excited to play either. And obviously, we are not excited to play San Miguel. But we’ll take on all comers,” Cone said.
Cone is also optimistic about their chances in a best-of-five series rather than facing a twice-to-win situation as a lower seed or best-of-three format.
“That kind of equals it all out,” Cone noted. “It should really be a really good battle to see who comes in. I think the match-ups are kind of very interesting.”
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