Ginebra celebrity Scottie Thompson (right) locates the door pounded to his face by Magnolia import Antonio Hester.– AUGUST DELA CRUZ
Nothing has actually transformed for Barangay Ginebra also after a 118-88 blowout by its sis group Magnolia in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup on Sunday.The Gin Kings are still the safeguarding champs right here as well as have actually been one of the most leading team in the season-ending competition– they won 4 of the last 5 versions of the Governors’Cup And a lot more significantly, for this version, it was just Ginebra’s very first loss in 4 video games.
But every one of that could not convince Tim Cone from seeing the loss wherefore it was.
“It just turned into a really embarrassing night,” he claimed on the heels of the fancied battle at Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay City.
“Tonight was truly our first [championship] hangover night. I mean, we just didn’t have it. I tried hard, we tried hard to get on them at halftime. [The players] came out with a little bit of fire to start a run, but we just couldn’t sustain it.”
Save for the very first 6 mins of the competition, Ginebra barely located methods to match the opponent’s enthusiasm. They ended up shedding in almost every analytical competition of the video game also, with the exception of second-chance factors as well as blocks.
The Gin Kings likewise tracked by as several as 31 factors in the video game.
“I hate to admit this, but we really were a tired team tonight, and you can see it in our body language [and] our lack of activity. We just weren’t getting up and down the floor, we weren’t moving without the ball. The ball was moving slowly tonight, and we were late on all of our rotations,” Cone claimed of the loss which pressed the club down to 5th location.
“It was a perfect storm: We were tired, and we played a team that was desperate and has found life with a new import, and just came out and they out-physicaled us and out-energized us,” he included, while ruing the densely-packed timetable his staff has actually gotten on because winning the Commissioner’s Cup.
On- lending celebrities
Ginebra is just one of the 3 professional groups touched to lending its celebrities to the National Team that will certainly be concluding its Fiba World Cup Asian Qualifiers project onFeb 24 as well as 27 at spacious Philippine Arena in Bulacan.
Among those standouts is Justin Brownlee, that was held to simply 22 factors– likewise one of the most by any type of Gin King that evening.
“I just want to give Magnolia a lot of credit. They played a great game. I don’t want to take anything away from their win. They deserved it, they played hard, and had a great game plan,” Brownlee, a naturalized Filipino, claimed.
Silver lining
“For us, of course, we’re coming off a championship. We’ve had a lot of success and started off 3-0. [But] this loss, you know, it can be positive,” he included. “Hopefully, we can gather ourselves from this loss, learn a lot and move forward. Understand that if we come out and play mediocre [basketball] and not mentally focused, this could also happen not only against Magnolia but a lot of teams.”
Cone likewise saw a positive side in the stand.
“It was good to have Christian [Standhardinger] back tonight, and he played extended minutes so that was very encouraging. LA [Tenorio] played a bit of extended minutes tonight, too. So, hopefully, we’re getting a little bit healthy as we wait for Japeth [Aguilar] to return,” claimed the Grand Slam train.
The Gin Kings will certainly require to confiscate one of the most out of those positives, what with a awesome stretch in advance. Still at hand for the group beloveds are San Miguel Beer, Meralco, Converge, as well as TNT– which have actually integrated for 15 success versus a plain 3 losses to produce a three-way connection on the top.
“We have to ensure we’re
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