IT was a low-scoring Game 1 of the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals between giant teams San Miguel and Barangay Ginebra.
Frankly, coach Tim Cone doesn’t give a damn.
Cone said it is to the Kings’ liking to keep the scoring at a low pace much like they did in their 73-71 win over the Beermen in the opener of their best-of-seven series.
READ: 'NSD' sees Ginebra through despite bad Game One vs San Miguel
The no. 1 seeded Beermen, the top offensive team in the conference, came out sizzling in the opening quarter with 29 points behind the guns of CJ Perez, Juami Tiongson, and Don Trollano.
They carried that momentum over to the second quarter where they led by as many as 18 points before the Kings went on a 12-2 run to end the first half and made it a manageable 45-37 count at the break.
Come the second half, and Ginebra started being stingy.
Cone's men limited the Beermen to just 26 points in the last two quarters on the way to complete another memorable come-from-behind win for the crowd darlings.
Keeping the numbers low, according to Cone, was one of the obvious game pllan that the Kings have this series.
“We have to keep the scoring down because I think that’s to our favor, and we’re used to playing more low scoring games,” said the Ginebra coach.
“We’re much more defensive oriented than they (Beermen) are, and they’re much more offensive oriented. If we get into a defensive battle that goes to our favor.”
San Miguel was held to just a 32 percent shooting from the floor, while Ginebra was slightly better at 37 percent.
The final score, incidentally, was the lowest this conference and lowest this season since Game 5 of the Commissioner’s Cup finals which Ginebra won over TNT, 73-66, according to PBA chief statistician Fidel Mangonon III.
It was also the lowest output for the Beermen with June Mar Fajardo around in more than a decade. They lost Game 3 of the 2014-15 Philippine Cup finals against Alaska, 78-70.
Cone says the blueprint to beating the mighty San Miguel side is pretty obvious.
“San Miguel averages 108 points a game and by far they are the no. 1 in the league. I think Rain or Shine is the only team close to them up there at no. 1,” he pointed out.
“And we average what, 94 points per game or 98 maybe. So if we’re scoring our normal 94 and they are scoring their normal 108, we’re going to get beaten every night."
So expect Ginebra to do the same thing for the rest of the series if that’s what will take the Kings to win.
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