By REYNALD MAGALLON
Barangay Ginebra clinched quarterfinals spot and firmed up its bid for a twice-to-beat bonus but head coach Tim Cone felt his team got a more significant prize in the tight 86-78 win over TNT on Monday, December 25.
More than the crucial win that boosted their shot at making the Top 4, Cone said playing in a playoff atmosphere and such grindout affair offered more benefit to the defending champions in the long run.
“That was good for us. We need to continue to learn how to grind games out because this is basically playoff basketball. We are coming to the end of the eliminations and all the games are so important,” said the multi-titled mentor.
“It was a game we needed to win and we need games like this to prepare ourselves for the playoff grind later on,” he added.
The Kings dodged a huge bullet against the Tropang Giga who nearly pulled off what could be a massive upset after playing without Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and veteran guard Jayson Castro.
Fortunately, Scottie Thompson’s late triples along with his defense on TNT star Calvin Oftana saved Ginebra some blushes in the end game.
“It was a grind, a real grind for us except for Scottie taking over down the stretch and making a couple of big shots. The game was basically a toss up,” pointed out Cone whose Ginebra was held to a 3-of-17 shooting from deep, the worst shooting performance from a team this season.
Ginebra improved to a 6-3 record in tie for the fourth spot with the SMB. The Beermen, however, had the advantage over the Kings in case of a similar standings at the end of the eliminations by virtue of SMB’s 95-82 win.
Cone, however, stressed that while it remains the goal for the team, Ginebra is not putting much worry on the Top 4 race and instead, wants to focus on its own development and take care of its remaining games.
“We’re definitely still in the bubble. We need things to happen for us. We know that those things are out of our control. The only things that we can control right now is just continuing to put up Ws and trying to figure out and when it’s all over with, just let the cards fall where they may,” he added.
