BY JONAS TERRADO
Game Friday
(Mall of Asia Arena)
7 p.m. – Ginebra vs Meralco
(Ginebra leads series 3-1)
Series Summary
Game 1: Ginebra 91, Meralco 87
Game 2: Meralco 104, Ginebra 102
Game 3: Ginebra 92, Meralco 84
Game 4: Ginebra 94, Meralco 72
Barangay Ginebra San Miguel sees no reason to feel a sense of comfort even as its legion of fans expect a grand party Friday night in the potential title-clinching Game 5 of the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The Kings go for the kill at 7 p.m. with a chance to beat the Bolts for a third time and win a fourth title since coach Tim Cone turned the talented-but-underachieving squad into a legitimate contender.
Despite a commanding 3-1 lead, Cone and company are still focused on the task at hand, even if they are listed as favorites to lay down the hammer on the deflated Meralco side.
“I would love to do it, but no I don’t think so,” said Cone regarding the prospect of closing it out. “We will try our best obviously. But this team (Meralco) has shown a lot of character in the past when we played them. We know they’re capable of coming back.”
Added Game 4 star Justin Brownlee: “We definitely want to end this thing on Friday and not allow them to get any kind of rhythm or any momentum going to further this playoff, so we just gonna come out and just do whatever we got to do and just try to win it.”
Only the 1991 Ginebra team of Robert Jaworski has ever come back from a 3-1 deficit and win the championship, beating Shell in that year’s First Conference.
Cone knows how it was losing a 3-1 deficit when his Alaska Aces lost to eventual champion Purefoods Chunkee Giants in the 2006 Philippine Cup semifinals.
“I’m well aware that a team can come back. You just can’t give them the momentum and the confidence that they’ll be searching for. So, we’re gonna have to go out and try to make a statement early in Game 5,” he said.
Meralco, embarrassed with how it played in Wednesday’s 94-72 loss, is determined to at least extended the series to a sixth game this weekend at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.
“Everybody on the roster played like s***, we gotta be better,” lamented Meralco import Allen Durham. “We basically gotta have heart. It’s not even about Xs and Os on Friday. We gotta come out and have some heart, and see if we want it more.”
There will probably be no surprises from now on after Meralco inserted Raymond Almazan despite his lateral tear on his left knee.
Almazan finished with 12 points in Game 4, but his injury obviously has changed the outlook of the series in Ginebra’s favor.
Japeth Aguilar and Stanley Pringle are expected to continue their consistent showing in the series, while LA Tenorio is out to quarterback Ginebra to its 12th title in franchise history.
