Ginebra’s defense in Game 4 was simply unacceptable.
None other than Justin Brownlee lamented as much after the Kings succumbed to a 131-121 defeat to San Miguel on Wednesday night, which foiled their bid of moving one win away from the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup Finals.
“I felt like both teams came ready to play but our defense today, obviously giving up 132 points, is not acceptable from us,” the three-time Best Import told reporters moments after the defeat at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
“We’re a team that prides itself on defense, then giving up that many points is not like us. It’s not where we want to be,” Brownlee continued.
“Always gotta give credit to San Miguel [though], they always come to play.”
It’s actually not the first time that the Barangay gave up that many points in this semis duel. They enabled the Beermen to drop the very same amount when the latter came away with the 131-125 overtime decision back in Game 2.
But unlike in that game, JB had to do almost everything on Wednesday night. He eventually ended up with a game-high 49 points on 20-of-26 shooting from the field, alongside nine rebounds and five assists in almost 41 minutes.
Four of his teammates finished in double figures, though, but none from Stephen Holt (17), Scottie Thompson (15), Japeth Aguilar (12), and rookie RJ Abarrientos (11) were able to deliver at least 20 markers in the loss.
As far as Brownlee is concerned, there’s not much of an issue with their offense, reiterating that it was really the way the whole crew defended which left a lot to be desired–most especially from the Barangay’s resident import.
Because the way their counterparts performed was in stark contrast to the crowd darlings. Three players scored at least 20 points for San Miguel, led by the 29 and 16 of June Mar Fajardo, as a total of six finished in twin digits.
“When I looked at the stat sheet, of course, scoring 49 points, I had it going offensively–me personally,” said Brownlee, whose team actually nailed 17 triples — four more than their foes — and shot 49-percent from the floor.
“And I think the whole team, we did pretty good offensively. But the story of the game was our defense,” he added as SMB shot 54.4-percent.
“We did not perform well on defense. It was a huge reason why we lost this game tonight.”
The series is now down to a best-of-3, Brownlee and Co. expect things to get even tougher from here on out, with both the perennial contenders itching to break the trend of alternating wins and get to those crucial two Ws first.
“We expect this series to just be hard-fought and tough the rest of the way. That’s what we’re expecting.”
