WITH the PBA Governors Cup finals between Barangay Ginebra and Meralco down to a best-of-five, Tim Cone believes the team that wins on Wednesday night should more or less start take control of the title series.
The Kings and Bolts are tied at 1-1 two games into the thrilling best-of-seven showdown where each team has not won by five points or more.
“We were unfortunate to lose Game One, but in many ways, lucky to win Game Two,” said Cone. “Now the winner of Game Three will be in a position to dictate the rest of the series.
“That makes Game Three crucial to both teams.”
Ginebra lost the series opener in overtime, 114-109, after blowing a 16-point lead. But the Kings managed to bounce back in Game Two, 82-79, despite losing a 15-point lead.
And that’s another thing that bothers Cone a bit.
“The problem in a series is that the loser now has the opportunity to make adjustments on what they did, so they’re making what I call pre-game adjustments,” he said.
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The winner meantime, according to the multi-titled coach, is stuck with what worked for the team and is left to second-guess the possible adjustment the opposition will have to do.
“In the meantime, this kind of works for us, so we’re gonna kind of stay the same way. And then when they made their adjustments and we see it in the game, then we have to do in-game adjustments. And in-game adjustments are so much harder than pre-game adjustments because you have to do that on the fly.”
“Oftentimes, the loser in a series has the advantage going into the next game and that’s why ping-poing is a back and forth,” he said. “Now it swings to them and figure out what’s their adjustment will be.”
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