TNT kept Barangay Ginebra at bay with its timely three-point shooting to pull off a 96-84 win and a 2-0 lead in the PBA Governors Cup best-of-seven finals.
The Tropang Giga let it rain from beyond the arc by going 14-of-37 for a 38 percent shooting clip in the Game 2 before a capacity crowd at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson showed he can hit it from 23 feet and beyond by going 6-of-12, Calvin Oftana was a solid 3-of-7, and two-way player Glenn Khobuntin a perfect 3-of-3 as the Tropang Giga repeated over the suddenly ice-cold Kings.
READ Chot gamble to rest Jayson Castro vs ROS paying off in PBA Finals
Game 3 is set on a rare Nov. 1 playdate in a match the Kings can’t afford to lose or else, it’s going to be a Halloween nightmare for coach Tim Cone and the rest of the Ginebra team.
Here are the regular SPIN.ph takeaways as Game 2 is now history.
1. FATIGUE SETTING IN FOR JB? – it seemed Justine Brownlee was lacking fire in Wednesday night’s loss. In fact, he has yet to really get going in this finals. The well-loved naturalized player had a quiet game of 19 points, nine rebounds, and three assists, while trying to contain TNT counterpart Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who torched the Kings for 37 points, 13 rebounds, and seven assists. At 36, Brownlee is no spring chicken and obviously, battling June Mar Fajardo, EJ Anosike, and the rest of the San Miguel Beermen in the semifinals took its toll on JB. It doesn’t help either, that only him and Japeth Aguilar alternate to man the middle for the Kings. Brownlee played 47 minutes in the Game 2 loss, almost the same as the 29-year-old Hollis-Jefferson who suited up without relief in 48 minutes.
2. STRUGGLING RJ ABARRIENTOS – the Barangay Ginebra rookie can’t get his rhythm going in the title series. The talented guard out of Far Eastern University produced seven points, four rebounds, and five assists, while going 4-of-6 from the foul line. But his shooting woes still hurts his game as the No. 3 overall pick went 1-of-7 from the field including 1-of-5 from long range. As he had shown in the past, Abarrientos is way better than this, and the earlier he gains his shooting touch, the better for Ginebra.
3. TNT DEFENSE HOLDS – For the second straight time, TNT’s defense held Ginebra to below 40 percent shooting from the field. In Game 2, the Kings shot just 36 percent, which was even worse than in their Game 1 loss (39 percent). While they’ve improved their three-point shooting to 26 percent (7-of-25) from a measly nine percent in the opener (2-of-21) from three-point distance, the Tropang Giga are certainly doing a great job containing Ginebra’s small ball rotation. In contrast, TNT was 53 percent from the floor in the opener, and 47 percent in Game
4. CONE HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH RHJ IMPROVED 3-PT SHOOTING – Hollis-Jefferson disclosed that shortly after the Hangzhou Asian Games, he began to work on his range especially after Tim Cone and Gilas Pilipinas forced him to shoot from three-point distance during the gold-medal match between the Philippines and Jordan, which Gilas won, 70-60. The former NBA player out of Arizona expected Cone to do exactly the same ploy on him in this finals. But with more confidence in his three-point shooting, the 29-year-old Jordan naturalized player torched Cone and the Kings by going 6-of-12 from beyond the arc, a new PBA career-high for the reigning Best Import.
READ RHJ makes Cone pay for daring him to make outside shot in Game 2
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