By REYNALD MAGALLON
Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone knew Justin Brownlee so well that he’s confident that the resident Kings import can figure it out and can immediately bounce back even after a dismal offensive showing in Game 2.
Brownlee was at his worst scoring performance in recent memory in the second game of the best-of-seven finals series against TNT after he was held to just 12 points on 3-of-16 shooting although he made up for it with 10 rebounds and eight assists.
“He had a tough night tonight. He had tough nights in the past. I never worried about him having a tough night. He responds, always really well,” said Cone who also lauded the TNT import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson who shadowed Brownlee for the most part of Game 2.
“Hollis-Jefferson did a good job defending him tonight. He kinda surprised us with his defense so we’ll look at the video and try to figure out things we can for Justin to be open. We’re not worried about Justin. He’s the last of our worries,” added Cone.
To be fair though it wasn’t Brownlee alone who was not on his A-game in that 95-82 loss as Ginebra’s three point shooting as well as its defense – two keys in their Game 1 victory – were also absent.
It even looked like TNT gave Ginebra a dose of its own medicine with multiple offensive rebounds in the final frame for the Tropang Giga completely took the fight out of the Kings comeback hopes.
“They flipped the script on us and they did everything they wanted to do. We didn’t get anything done that we wanted to do. It was a total turnaround,” said Cone.
