JUSTIN Brownlee showcased his offensive brilliance, but Barangay Ginebra’s identity on the other end of the floor was missing a unit as they gave up a 131-121 decision to San Miguel that put the PBA Governors’ Cup semifinals on even terms, 2-2, on Wednesday.
The resident Gin Kings import fell one point shy of dropping 50 after making all but six of his 26 shots, including two four-pointers and five triples, for a blistering 76.9-percent clip from the field overall.
But Brownlee felt the Gin Kings’ effort on defense left much to be desired.
“When I looked at the stats sheet, of course, scoring forty-nine points, I had it going offensively. And I think the whole team; I think we did pretty good offensively,” he said.
“But the story of the game was our defense,” he was quick to add. “We did not perform well on defense.”
READ: SMB endures Brownlee's 49 points in Game 4, ties series at 2-all
The Gin Kings have allowed the Beermen to score an identical 131 points in their two losses in the best-of-seven series, letting SMB make 49 of their 90 shots for an efficient 54.4 shooting on Wednesday night.
“San Miguel definitely came ready to play,” Brownlee said. “I feel like both teams came ready to play, but I felt our defense is not acceptable. We’re a team, we pride ourselves on defense. It’s not like us. It’s not like where we want to be.”
“Give credit to San Miguel,” he added. “They always come to play. June Mar (Fajardo) had a great game. He was incredible. CJay (Perez) early and, of course, (Marcio) Lassiter, and just the whole crew. They came ready to play. Congrats to those guys. They deserved the win.”
Brownlee, who completed his offensive explosion with nine rebounds, five assists, two steals, and one block in almost 41 minutes of play, braces for a grueling battle in the series that’s now down to a best-of-three.
“We expect it to be tough,” Brownlee said.
“I’m sure, just like them, we definitely don’t expect blowouts and in this series. We feel like we’re one of the top teams in this league and we got a lot of respect for San Miguel. We know they’re one of the top teams in this league, if not the top, so we don’t expect blowouts
“But if it’s there, we’re going to take the opportunity when maybe they’re playing bad or I’m sure it’s just the same vice versa. We expect the series to be hard fought the rest of the way,” he added.
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