Ginebra’s last three games will be do-or-die games says head coach Tim Cone
Expectations are high for Barangay Ginebra San Miguel heading into the Philippine Cup, especially after ending an eight-year title drought a conference ago. However, Ginebra has been consistently inconsistent this conference.
“We had really high expectations for ourselves coming from a championship. So when we have expectations and we don’t meet them, we get a little frustrated and get a little upset,” Ginebra head coach Tim Cone shared.
Going into their tilt against the Meralco Bolts, the Barangay were situated at eighth place with a 3-4 slate with four games to go. A slow first quarter against the Bolts in Iloilo could have made matters worse for Ginebra.
However, unlike in the majority of their losses, Ginebra did not let their head down and kept pushing. They also turned to their bread-and-butter the rest of the way, playing stingy, lockdown defense the rest of the way.
“The thing I like about today’s game is that our team battled,” the 59-year-old mentor said. “We had some bad moments and they kept battling through it, keeping our heads up, keep pushing. That’s what we have been doing that’s wrong lately. When bad things happen, we tend to sink.
“For us, we have to keep on moving and keep moving forward and put that behind us. When we make a bad mistake, keep playing forward.”
After allowing Meralco to score 23 points in the opening frame, the league’s stingiest defense limited the Bolts to just 27 points in the next 24 minutes. Meralco was limited to just 26 percent shooting after the dust had settled as Ginebra took an 83-72 win to go to 4-4 — half-a-game behind a top four spot.
Seeing his team go toe-to-toe against the league-leading San Miguel Beermen and overcome adversity in this game, the 19-time PBA champion coach believes that his team is now playing with a sense of urgency. And he wants to see the same intensity entering their last three games in the elimination round.
“No doubt, these games are playoff games for us. If we don’t do well in these games, we don’t have a chance for the playoffs.
“We have Blackwater, Phoenix, and NLEX in our last three games. So, if we can get at least two out of three of those, we are going to be in good shape, we can have a good chance. But if we can run the table and get all three of them, that will be fantastic and give us momentum getting into the playoffs,” he said.
Even with the predicament that they put themselves in, Cone continues to believe that they are still contenders for the crown this conference.
“We still feel we are a championship competitor, we can contend,” a defiant Tim Cone said.
