In just his second game after a 10-month hiatus, Greg Slaughter showed what the Barangay had missed when he was gone.
The 6-foot-11 behemoth, who had 14 points, 14 rebounds, and three blocks during his return, seemingly regained his old, dominant form, scoring 19 points on 6-of-10 shooting to go with eight rebounds, and two blocks to help his side stamp their class over the Globalport Batang Pier, 124-108.
“It’s always good to win,” said the Filipino-American after the tiff.
And for the Ateneo de Manila University product, his notable performance was simply the result of him fulfilling whatever head coach Tim Cone asks him to do.
“Whatever coach Tim [Cone] wants from me, I’ll do it. I’m gonna do whatever it takes to fill in with the team. Whatever role it might be, I’ll do it to the best of my abilities,” said the 29-year-old from Cleveland, Ohio.
“Whether I start or come off the bench, I’m just going to be always ready every game.”
But what made Slaughter delighted with their win was the way Ginebra maximized their frontline, which boasts him, Japeth Aguilar, Joe Devance, and Justin Brownlee — four cagers that made it a long night for the Batang Pier.
“We’re playing really good with that lineup out there, we’re able to impose our presence,” lauded Slaughter.
But the first pick of the 2013 Draft reiterated that it will still be a process for the Barangay even after the rousing bounce-back victory, as the season-ending conference is still in its early stages.
“We still need a lot of things to figure out,” Slaughter pointed out. “It’s just going to be a conference of adjustments. We’re not there yet, and we got a lot of way to go. We got a lot of people going through some things.
“But we’re going to find our chemistry to make it work.”
