By REYNALD MAGALLON
Barangay Ginebra was left to ponder for its next possible moves for its rotation as offseason acquisition Isaac Go went down with an apparent knee injury in the Kings’ 124-102 victory over the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.
Go sustained the injury while challenging a three-point try from Elasto Painters guard Felix Lemetti at the 3:15 mark of the opening frame. The Kings’ big man appeared to have stepped on Lemetti’s foot, causing his right knee to buckle.
“The win was a little bittersweet because we don’t know how Isaac Go is at this point. It’s some kind of knee injury, but we don’t know the severity of it,” said Ginebra head coach Tim Cone who was obviously devastated by the setback.
And it was only understandable considering that Go’s injury came at a time when the Kings seemed to be finally figuring things out as they are now in the middle of a four-game winning streak after taking some time to make the adjustments with its retooled roster.
“Kinda like we won the battle, but we lost the war losing Isaac. He is a big part of what we’re trying to build,” said Cone.
Go is expected to not be available in Ginebra’s Sunday showdown against San Miguel and how long he could be out is yet to be determined. Depending on the severity of his injury, Ginebra is already mulling over tweaking of the team’s rotation.
“We’re gonna have to kinda reconstruct our rotation with Isaac out. We don’t know how long he’s gonna be out. Again, we don’t know the severity of the injury. It could be long-term, it could be short-term,” Cone pointed out.
Without Go, Cone was forced to extensively rely on their small ball lineup which the veteran coach admitted may not work as well as when they used it versus Rain or Shine against bigger and heftier teams.
Much of the load would fall on the shoulders of Japeth Aguilar although Cone is looking at Raymond Aguilar and even another offseason addition Ben Adamos in getting spot minutes and fill in the void.
