Kobey Lam proved he has what it takes to perform in the biggest of stages following an act to remember to help Bay Area prevent falling into a dangerous spot in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals, Friday night.
A tad silent in the series’ first three games, the 22-year-old guard erupted for a career-high-tying 30 points to star in the Dragons’ 84-96 comeback victory over Barangay Ginebra to tie the best-of-seven affair at two games apiece.
Besides not wanting to trail 3-1, playing without the injured Andrew Nicholson served as an extra push for the whole crew, according to the youngster.
“Being down 1-2 in the series is tough,” he said. “For this game, it was really important for us. We don’t want to be down 3-1, especially with our import Nicholson out and Myles out, so that’s like, we all just want to step up more.”
Lam indeed showed assertiveness at its finest with how he balled out and a huge part of it was, of course, the guidance of head coach Brian Goorjian.
“I was hard on him,” disclosed the veteran mentor. “I said when the game started tonight, I talked about playing off a certain amount of bounces, make your decisions quickly, and be brave. I back you, be brave.”
Lam surely took it to heart, most especially in the fourth quarter. There, he put on a heater of a run all by himself, scoring eight consecutive points to give the guest team an 84-72 advantage with 4:47 left in the game.
(C) PBA Images
“Take chances, take risks, but in our scheme, and I thought he did that,” Goorjian said. “Then at the end of the game, he just made some incredible plays.”
To see Lam and the rest of the Dragons come out triumphant even with the odds stacked against them couldn’t make their coach any prouder.
“You know what, you just deal with the hand that’s dealt,” said Goorjian as Bay Area is facing the possibility of playing without an import the rest of the series.
“What I said to them, I didn’t want to look at the scoreboard, I just want these 16, 17 thousand fans, people all over the world watching this, you still have a chance to earn respect on how you compete and how you play,” he added.
“There was no talk about winning, it was about what we were going to put on display. I was disappointed in Game Three and Game Four, again without an import, I’m really proud of where they went.”
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The second game of each PBA gameday is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
