RJ ABARRIENTOS had a forgettable PBA debut for Barangay Ginebra where he struggled to hit his shots during their game against Rain or Shine on Saturday at the Candon City Arena.
Abarrientos only scored two points, while shooting a woeful 1-of-15 (6.7 percent) from the field in the Gin Kings’ 73-64 defeat against the Elasto Painters in their Governors’ Cup opener.
The No. 3 pick in the draft finally made his first PBA basket on a lay-up in the 9:18-mark of the game after missing his first 11 shots, but struggled to make one again, his final four shots being three-point shots.
Abarrientos, who decided to move to the PBA after stints in Korea and Japan, even clunked all his eight three-point and four four-point attempts during the match that he would rather forget.
Abarrientos also had two rebounds and two steals on Saturday.
The star rookie of the match turned out to be Felix Lemetti, who scored 10 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter to will Rain or Shine to victory in its 20-3 run to close the game.
Also struggling in his first game with Barangay Ginebra was Isaac Go, who was acquired during the offseason in a major trade with Terrafirma.
Go only made two points and was slightly better percentage-wise than Abarrientos after he shot 1-of-14 (7.1 percent) from the field. He, however, missed all five threes in the game, though Go hauled eight rebounds.
In contrast, Stephen Holt delivered for Ginebra by making 13 points and pulling out nine rebounds in the defeat.
Scottie Thompson was also a non-factor, at least, on the offensive end when he went 1-of-10 from the field though he grabbed a team-high 15 rebounds.
In the end, however, Ginebra shot just 26-of-94 from the field for 27.7 percent in its season opener
It goes without saying that Abarrientos and Go will be eyeing to make up for their off-night when it goes up against San Miguel on Tuesday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum.
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