For the second time in three seasons, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel spoiled San Miguel’s bid to win a Grand Slam.
Sunday night, the Gin Kings gutted out a 100-97 win over the Beermen to make good use of their twice-to-beat advantage and head to the 2019 PBA Governors’ Cup semifinals.
It was like 2017 all over again. Then, the crowd darlings maximized their win-once edge and booted out their sister team also in the quarters of the same tilt to end the latter’s Triple Crown hopes.
However, coach Tim Cone — the only coach in the league with two Grand Slams and the last coach to have won such — said that it was never an intention of them to deny SMB of winning the feat.
“Well, you know, they’re just in front of us. We didn’t talk about that. We didn’t go into the locker room and say, ‘Hey, we gotta end San Miguel’s Grand Slam.’ That wasn’t really a motivation for us,” he said.
For Cone, their primary goal was simple: take down San Miguel to get to the next round, which his wards did.
“A motivation for us was that San Miguel is a great team, and in front of us, and we had to get through them. And that was our motivation,” said the owner of 21 PBA championships and counting.
Justin Brownlee agreed with Cone’s sentiments, adding that Ginebra also didn’t want to send the series to another game. After all, they are aware of how dangerous San Miguel can be in such a situation.
“We got our personal goals that we wanna achieve for ourselves. But we just didn’t wanna go to a second game with them, because that’s a dangerous team, very talented,” he said.
“We just wanted to do whatever we can to try to close them out in the first game.”
The former Best Import wasn’t even aware that the Gin Kings had foiled the Beermen’s Grand Slam aspirations twice now — this, even if he was Ginebra’s reinforcement back in 2017.
For him, it is more important that they have advanced to the semis, keeping alive their bid of regaining supremacy in the season-ending conference.
Last season, Ginebra aimed for a Governors’ Cup three-peat, but Magnolia ruined its plans. The Hotshots finished them off in the semis in four games, eventually winning the crown.
“Wow, I didn’t know that. Must’ve slipped my mind or something. But it’s just great to advance, no matter who we play at this point,” said Brownlee, who has won three PBA titles so far.
“Like I said, that’s an incredible team, very talented, probably one of the best teams to ever play in this league, and it just always feels good to beat those guys. We have a lot of respect for them.”
