Coach Tim isn't pressing the panic button, though.
Barangay Ginebra San Miguel coach Tim Cone is not one to mince words, especially after a particularly bad performance from his wards. And, as usual, he dished out on Ginebra’s Game 2 loss to the TNT Tropang Giga that leveled the PBA Governors’ Cup finals at one game apiece.
“There’s nothing much to say. They flipped the script on us,” Cone told News5's Martie Bautista in an interview after the game on Wednesday. "They got everything they wanted to do, and we didn’t get what we wanted to do.”
Indeed, the Tropang Giga got their way, from import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson throwing his weight around to Mikey Williams and RR Pogoy getting their usual numbers to Calvin Oftana bouncing back strong. Even Jayson Castro had his moments, particularly at the start of the fourth frame, when he dissected Ginebra’s defense on the high pick-and-roll.
In contrast, the defending champs struggled majority of the game, and no one typified that struggle more than import Justin Brownlee, who played one of his worst games ever in the PBA. Ginebra’s defense was also MIA for long stretches, especially in the latter part of the final frame, when TNT put the game out of reach by making one open triple after another.
It is a good thing then that the championship will be won over the course of a seven-game series—and that means Ginebra gets the chance to bounce back starting Game 3.
“We’ll just see what happens in Game 3,” said Cone. “We just gotta play with a little more discipline and come out with a little bit more fire than we did today,” he added.
This series resumes on Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, with the Tropang Giga looking to build on their big Game 2 win and Ginebra aiming to flip the script in its favor.
(With reports from Martie Bautista, News5)