It could have been the perfect Sunday night for Christian Standhardinger.
After earning the 2023 PBA Governors’ Cup Best Player of the Conference honors, the Ginebra workhorse badly wanted to win Finals Game 4 as it would have moved the reigning champions on the cusp of a successful title defense against TNT. But the Kings lost to a hot-shooting Tropang Giga, 116-104.
(C) PBA Images
“It’s obviously very tough on a night like this when we’re losing,” he said moments after the match at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
“I would have liked that victory today, but sometimes you can’t have everything you want.”
Winning by a landslide with 1,110 points, Standhardinger collected his second BPC award after the 2019 Governors’ Cup when he was still with NorthPort, becoming just the fourth player to cop the plum with different franchises.
Second in the race was TNT’s Roger Pogoy with 672, and so that 438-point margin is the largest since June Mar Fajardo had 524 more than Sean Anthony to win the 2019 Philippine Cup BPC, per league stats chief Fidel Mangonon III.
Over 16,000 fans came to the Big Dome for the coronation, and the pro-Ginebra crowd definitely wanted a double celebration, but instead witnessed a total reversal of what happened back in Game 3 two nights ago.
TNT made it rain again with 21 three-pointers, now the new PBA Finals record. Twelve of those came from just three players as main man Jayson Castro, Mikey Williams, and Mikey Williams drained four apiece.
It was a tough night for the Kings and Standhardinger. He only produced 10 points, three rebounds, and nine assists — that, after averaging 20.3 markers, 10.6 boards, and 3.0 dimes in the series’ first three games.
Sunday night’s result was similar to the time when Scottie Thompson won the 2022 Commissioner’s Cup BPC, but the Kings lost Game 4 of the Finals against Bay Area by way of a 94-86 win, sending that series to a 2-2 stalemate.
A curse, perhaps? “Scottie couldn’t do it either,” Standhardinger said — jokingly, of course.
He may have managed to crack a joke, but the loss was tough for the 33-year-old and the Barangay. However, he knows that all that’s left for them is to pick themselves up and gear up for Wednesday’s Game 5.
“It’s tough to lose like this on a night like this,” he said. “It’s tough. I’m feeling very honored, and there’s so much appreciation.
“But we all wanted that win. It’s just tough to lose like this, to be honest with you. We just have to bounce back now and figure it out.”
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The 2023 PBA Governors Cup Finals is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
