THERE should be no let-up for Barangay Ginebra as the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals shifts to Game Five.
At least that’s what head coach Tim Cone expects from his wards after the Gin Kings tied the best-of-seven series at 2-2 by winning Game Four last Sunday before a sellout crowd at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
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Cone shrugged off the notion that they have been playing better over the past two games and will enter Game Five with momentum on their side after being down 0-2 early in the finals.
“All we did was tie the series. It’s 0-0. It’s a best-of-three,” said Cone after the 106-92 victory over TNT. “We can’t live off the last two games and feel good about that. We’ve got to be forward moving, forward thinking.”
Game Five is set on Wednesday at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum with Ginebra having the benefit of a two-day break in between matches. Cone noted how grueling the finals is under the Wednesday-Friday-Sunday sked.
While he welcomes the two-day respite, Cone said it can also benefit TNT after reeling to its second straight defeat, the first time the Tropang Giga had a losing streak all conference long.
“It’s going to be good for both teams. Not just us. They will be able to collect themselves a little bit,” Cone said.
Cone feels that one of the players that will benefit the most from the two-day off is Japeth Aguilar, who has been playing a lot of minutes in the center position.
“Just giving Japeth and Justin [Brownlee] a break is huge,” said Cone. “Remember, Japeth is basically playing without a true back-up. He’s been forced to play a lot of minutes.”
“We are really hard on Japeth, pushing him, and pushing him. He is such a great person. He never gets upset. But we are really hard on him to keep going. It’s been a tough role for him because he doesn’t have a backup. Joe (Devance) is really his back-up. We couldn’t get big anymore once Japeth leaves the floor,” said Cone.
The 25-time PBA champion coach said an adjustment that Ginebra must make is how to solve the small ball of TNT which posed problems in Game Four.
“I will say that small line-up that Talk ‘N Text plays is to their advantage obviously. We have the better advantage when we play big,” Cone said.
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