With the series now reduced to a virtual best-of-three, TNT and Barangay Ginebra will duke it out for the crucial third victory in Game 5 of the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup Finals later tonight at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
Scheduled for a 7:30 PM tip-off under the same Big Dome lights that illuminated three of the title bout’s first four games, the two have their sights set on taking the 3-2 lead, which of course means moving a step closer to winning it all.
The Kings could have taken a bigger lead and made Friday’s encounter a potential clincher after a convincing Game 3 at the Mall of Asia Arena. However, the defending champs punched back in Game 4 last Wednesday.
With Jordan Heading and Chris McCullough leading the closeout, the Tropang 5G came away with the 106-98 victory. And they managed that even after the crowd darlings surged back from down 20 and got to within eight late in the match.
Besides spirited rallies, another trend in this series has been the exchange of wins between the long-time rivals, leading to a 2-2 stalemate after four.
Neither team has posted back-to-back wins in this championship battle yet. TNT would love to be the first in Game 5, which — if they do — would move them just one win away from successfully defending the throne.
“It’s now down to a best-of-three. So, as you know, in the series, the longer it gets, it now becomes a battle of attrition,” said Coach Chot Reyes.
(C) PBA Images
But of course, Ginebra is out to prevent that, with its sights set on getting the same spunk it had that led to a 116-102 win in Game 3.
“We got beat up there in the second half,” lamented Coach Tim Cone moments after Game 4, not looking at their late rally as a silver lining. “They just totally outplayed us in the second half. We just looked like we were really tired.”
According to Casino Plus sportsbook, the Tropang 5G are a +2.5 underdog, while the over/under points total is set at 197.0 as of 3:30 PM.
Wagers can be placed here: https://www.casinoplus.com.ph/home/inGame?name=basketball&title=SportBet.
As usual, newly-minted BPC and Best Import awardees RJ Abarrientos and Justin Brownlee led the way, but the tandem did not receive much support, particularly from guys such as Scottie Thompson and Stephen Holt.
From rousing performances in Game 3, the two combined for only nine points on 4-of-13 shooting. And it didn’t help that the bench guys, such as the troika of Ralph Cu, Isaac Go, and Jeremiah Gray, hardly contributed as well.
Cone actually widened his rotation by utilizing 11 men, but that didn’t work, unlike the opposing team. For his part, Reyes went with nine players and received solid production from 39-year-old Jayson Castro and Henry Galinato.
With things now back to square one, Game 5 should boil down to a clash of who wants it more as the race to the ultimate prize heads into the home stretch.
