Even Saturday evening’s rains had not been able to dampen Justin Brownlee and his fiery hands.
Brownlee made the Mall of Asia Arena look like his own playground, dropping 44 points to lead the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel past the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, 75-72, to move closer to the 2018 Commissioner’s Cup Finals.
The 6-foot-5 reinforcement only missed five shots in the 19 he took from the floor en route to his second career-best scoring outing, and he also finished the match with 15 rebounds, six assists, a whopping five steals, and a block.
“Man, that’s a lot,” beamed Brownlee moments after the his remarkable night. “Definitely unexpected but whenever a player gets it going like tonight, I just definitely want to keep staying aggressive. I felt good.
“Everytime I shot, I felt it was going in so whenever I feel like that I just want to stay aggressive and help the team win.”
In Saturday’s victory, Brownlee already had 25 points in the first 24 minutes, marking the fourth straight time that he has scored at least 20 in the first half. Asked about it, the 30-year-old said that he’s simply following Tim Cone’s orders.
“Coach Tim, he always tell me to be aggressive,” shared Brownlee. “He always put me in I feel like a perfect situation for me to be successful on the offensive end.
“I’ve just been trying do what he says – doing aggressive.”
Eyes will now be on Brownlee if he will be able to replicate this outing of his come Game Four on Monday, July 23. But it is the least of his concern, as he only aims to overcome Rain or Shine once more to head into the Finals.
Brownlee and the Barangay are bracing for another tough bout with the Elasto Painters as that’s what happened in Game Three — RoS clawed back from a deep 25-point hole and knocked within two in the finals nine seconds.
“We think we can do it. We think we can win and close out Game Four,” he said. “Definitely we know that it’s not gonna be easy just like Rain or Shine showed tonight. They are tough, resilient group of guys.
“We know it’s not gonna be easy.”
