THE tussle between Barangay Ginebra and guest team Eastern will definitely attract memories of the Gin Kings' last championship run in the PBA.
The Gin Kings’ recent title was back in the 2022-23 Commissioner’s Cup when they overcame Bay Area Dragons in the seventh game of the championship series, 114-99.
Eastern may be a different team than the Bay Area Dragons, but head coach Tim Cone said he respects what the Hong Kong squad has done so far this conference where it enters the match-up with a 4-1 win-loss slate.
READ: Jamie Malonzo, Isaac Go near return to Ginebra active roster
“They do the things you need to do to be a winning basketball team,” said Cone. “They move the ball really well. They move each other really well and they help each other on defense. They're an excellent defensive team and they focus on that side of the ball.
“You’re not going to catch them by surprise because they are really solid fundamentally and you know we’re kind of alike in some ways the way that they are coached and the way we coach. So it seems from the outside looking in. So I think it’s going to be a really, really interesting battle,” said Cone.
The Ginebra-Eastern battle is on Sunday, 7:30 p.m. at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City.
Eastern coach wants 'NSD' from his wards
Interestingly, Eastern coach Mensur Bajramovic said he wants his wards to play like the Ginebra mantra when they face the Gin Kings in front of their fans.
“I know Ginebra is one of the best teams here, most popular, with a very good coach leading the team and very good players too.” said Bajramovic.
“So far, I’d never say we would give up. We will fight in this game to win. Let’s make them live hard in this game. And we’ll see. We will try to fight as best as we can,” the Bosnian coach added.
Eastern has a couple of players from that Bay Area Dragons team in Hayden Blankley, Glen Yang, and Kobey Lam, and they definitely know what to expect from Barangay Ginebra on Sunday.
Ginebra, of course, practically has the same line-up from that 2022-23 Commissioner's Cup campaign with Justin Brownlee leading the way.
“We struggled with our team before. If we can continue to improve, it can be competitive," said Blankley in an interview early in the conference. "The team is different, they made some changes, they have new guys. I want to say (I) have confidence in my guys and have some faith in that so we can compete. But they (Ginebra) are a very good team."
Ahead of the contest, one team will come on an ample time to prepare, the other one won’t have that luxury.
Eastern will come in the game with five days to study Barangay Ginebra after its 84-75 win over Blackwater last Tuesday.
Barangay Ginebra played just last Friday and defeated Phoenix, 94-72, for a 2-0 win-loss slate.
“We have time to prepare and play a really good game,” said Bajramovic.
“Our thing is that you know we're coming off our third game in five days. That’s going to give them a little bit of an edge. They've had a little bit of rest although they've played more games than we have. So you know we'll see how we go,” said Cone.
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