STANLEY Pringle's surprise start for Barangay Ginebra and the Kings’ hot shooting from beyond the arc were the keys in the Kings’ 117-103 victory over TNT in Game 3 of the PBA Governors Cup Finals on Friday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Tropang Giga coach Jojo Lastimosa pointed to both as major factors that decided the outcome of the series’ highest-scoring game so far.
Pringle, 36, was inserted by coach Tim Cone in the starting five in lieu of Jeremiah Gray and the veteran guard responded by firing 22 points, including a perfect 6-of-6 from three-point range and an immaculate 7-of-7 overall.
READ: Ginebra buries TNT in a hail of treys in Game 3
Pringle’s hot shooting rubbed off on the rest of the Kings, who went 18-of-32 from the beyond the arc for a high 56.3 percent shooting accuracy.
“That’s the story of the game. If you want to look at the three-point shooting, kung sino yung nananalo sa three-point shooting percentage, yun ang nananalo ng game,” said Lastimosa on his way out of the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“Hats off and credit again to Tim (Cone) for putting Pringle in the starting lineup and got him going early, and he never let up. He didn’t miss. That was the key.”
To be fair, TNT shot well, too, from the three-point arc, going 37 percent on 11-of-29 shooting, with Mikey Williams hitting 50 percent of his shots (5-of-10) to finish with 19 points.
“Even for us, we scored well, but they scored better,” added Lastimosa.
TNT was very much in the game up until the final 8:56 mark as import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson scored on a follow-up dunk off a Jayson Castro miss to tie the game at 88-88 to cap a 7-0 run.
Cone then put Pringle back into the game and Ginebra went on 17-6 run including five three-pointers courtesy of Pringle, Jamie Malonzo, and Justin Brownlee to stretch the lead back to 105-94 with 5:08 left to play.
Lastimosa sued for time, but the Tropang Giga never threatened again.
Now, TNT could only hope the reigning champions won’t be able to sustain that kind of high accuracy from the outside come Game 4 on Sunday.
“I hope not. Let’s see what happens,” Lastimosa said. “We need to do a better job defending their three-point shooters. We need to take on their shooters especially if they started hot.”
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