Ginebra head coach Tim Cone was proud to see his wards realize that the team isn’t all about Justin Brownlee, following a solid collective effort that helped the reigning champs regain the lead in the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals on Friday.
Stanley Pringle emerged as the Kings’ x-factor in their 117-103 Game 3 win with 22 points, but the champion mentor was all the more glad about how the others stepped up after the three-time Best Import got checked the last time out.
Looking back, the versatile forward got held to a series of personal career-lows as he only scored 12 markers on a dismal 3-of-16 field goal shooting.
(C) PBA Images
“Stanley kept us in the game, got us ahead, kept us in the game during the first half, and then hit big shots in the second half,” offered Cone during the postgame briefing at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
“But it was more of a job, I think, that other guys knew and realized they had to pick it up for Justin. You just can’t keep going to Justin, Justin, Justin all the time,” the winner of 25 league championships furthered.
All five starters finished in double figures, with Jamie Malonzo turning in his best game of the series with 27 points on six treys alongside 10 rebounds.
BPC frontrunner Christian Standhardinger delivered 16 points and 10 rebounds, while reigning MVP Scottie Thompson finished with his own double-double with 16 markers as well and 10 assists, along with five boards.
Game 2 actually saw four Kings finish in twin digits – Standhardinger, Malonzo, Thompson, and Brownlee – but Game 3’s performance was far better overall, not just because it led to the W, but how they brought the W altogether.
Ginebra shot 55 percent from the field, including an impressive 18-of-32 clip from three-point range to set a new franchise record for made treys.
That solid shooting plus their well-deployed attack were big thanks to the way they moved the ball as they racked up 27 assists.
“Other guys got to contribute, other guys got to be aggressive and take their shots. I thought we did a better job of trying to execute tonight. I thought that’s what was lacking in the last game, we just didn’t execute,” said Cone.
It was indeed a welcome sight for the Barangay to see the others pick it up for Brownlee, but the naturalized cager was back to his element as well.
He top-scored with 29 points on 57-percent shooting and also tallied eight rebounds, five assists, a steal, and a block in 44 minutes.
“Fortunately for myself, I shot the ball better, and I played a whole lot better than I did in Game Two,” exhaled Brownlee.
And he, too, was happy to see the balance the team has been hoping to get come playoff time, so he hopes they will all be able to sustain as much.
“Everybody has shown and proven themselves that they can be a main focus on the offensive end. I think it’s just the balance that we battle with, maybe all throughout every playoff we ever went through, or every Finals or whatever. You know, just the balance we try to find. Teams try to ‘unbalance’ us by maybe denying me and doing some of the things we normally do. Today’s win, we gotta give a lot of credit, it was a team effort,” said Brownlee.
“I think we moved the ball well, we got, I think, more than 25 assists tonight — way more than the other night,” he added as they had 19 dimes last game.
“So you gotta give credit to the whole team. It was a team effort tonight.”
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The 2023 PBA Governors Cup Finals is live-streamed on SMART Sports.
