For two games now, Greg Slaughter has been on the sidelines for the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel due to a hamstring injury. Inevitably, his absence has been meant plenty of negatives for the Gin Kings.
The Barangay fell to their third straight loss on Friday night — the second straight night Slaughter didn’t play — as their comeback fell short against the Phoenix Fuel Masters, 91-97, at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
With yet another defeat, the 28-year-old could not hide his frustrations anymore.
“It’s frustrating for me because I want to help the team,” stressed the seven-foot center. “It’s hard to say what we’re lacking right now. I think we still could have played a better game even without me out there these past few games.
“It sucks.”
It also doesn’t help that even Slaughter himself could not provide any timetable for his return.
“It’s hard to say,” the five-year pro lamented.
“I really want to play but the worst thing we can do right now is to rush it because our big picture, our end goal is we want to win this championship so we’re being patient with it.
“We’ll just see how it goes day by day,” the 2017 Governors’ Cup Best Player of the Conference furthered.
Ginebra head coach Tim Cone cleared that Slaughter can participate in practices already, but reiterated that it wouldn’t be a good idea to get him back into the Gin Kings’ rotation with the kind of shape he’s in.
“My understanding is that he’s clear to start practicing,” shared the multi-titled tactician.
“But I don’t think it’s prudent for us to risk him not being in shape, because with the hamstring injury you can’t do any running.
“He hasn’t ran in almost two weeks or in over a week,” added Cone. “So we’re gonna have to think long and hard if we’re gonna play him on Sunday [against San Miguel Beermen].”
But regardless if he’ll be cleared to play or not, Slaughter hopes that they can match up well with defending champions San Miguel Beermen, who will be heading into Sunday’s rivalry bout with an immaculate, league-best 5-0 record.
“We got to come out and play with more effort,” said Slaughter, who was averaging 20.67 points and 10.3 rebounds prior to his injury.
“If we want to beat San Miguel, we got to play all 48 minutes of the game.”
