BARANGAY Ginebra will look to do on Tuesday what it has done in five out of the last seven Governors’ Cup playoffs, eliminate San Miguel.
The Kings go for a sweep of their best-of-five quarterfinal series against the Beermen in Game 3 at the City of Dasmariñas Arena in Cavite.
Ginebra has mastered defeating San Miguel in past seasons of the Governors’ Cup conference, including in the 49th Season where the Gins beat the Beermen, 4-2, in the semifinals, and in the 47th Season where it also won via a 3-0 sweep.
READ: Stephen Holt hailed for containing struggling George King
Barangay Ginebra has also beaten San Miguel in the 2019 season quarterfinals in one game, in the 2016-17 season quarterfinals in one game, and the 2015-16 season semifinals, 3-2.
All five had Justin Brownlee as its import.
But if there is a team that could pull off a comeback in a series, it’s San Miguel.
Who would forget the ‘Beeracle’ of the 2015-16 Philippine Cup finals where the Beermen were down 0-3 to win the best-of-seven series.
Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone is very well aware of SMB’s capabilities.
“If you told me that we’d be up 2-0 at this point at the start of the series, I’ll tell you I think you are crazy. We’re going to appreciate where we are now but we know it’s still very tenuous," Cone said.
“We’ve heard this many times before. I can’t even tell you how many series I’ve been in now in the PBA. I would have no idea, but it’s been a lot. I’ve seen a lot of things happen that teams come back, teams get on a roll, teams get going forward,” he added.
So far in the series, Barangay Ginebra has also been dominant over San Miguel, posting biggest leads of 20 and 33 in each of the two games. The Gin Kings won over the Beermen, 126-99, in Game 2 last Friday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
In this Governors’ Cup series, Jordan Murphy is Barangay Ginebra’s reinforcement and has fit in quite well with the Gins. In Game 2, Murphy had 33 points on 8-of-12 from the field and 16-of-21 from the free throw line, while also pulling 10 rebounds.
Stephen Holt also had a big night on both ends with 19 points including 5-of-6 shooting from threes while being the primary defender of San Miguel import George King, who was limited to his conference-low 13 points.
Cone hopes that his wards will continue the effort that they’ve exemplified during the first two games of the series.
“It’s just going to be on us to continue to not relax, not let our guard down, and keep coming out with the same intensity game to game that we’ve been doing."
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