It’s simply about finding ways for Justin Brownlee.
The three-time Best Import was back to the usual, powering Barangay Ginebra past TNT to equalize the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup Finals on Sunday night — that, after losing the first two meetings of the best-of-7 affair.
He finished with a game-high 34 points on 11-of-16 shooting from the floor for easily his best game of the series after averaging just 20.0 points in the last three games. And that’s big thanks to the other Kings, he said.
“It was great to get a good rhythm,” the 36-year-old told reporters moments after their 106-92 Game 4 victory at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
“Obviously in the past two games, I haven’t had a good shooting touch. But it felt great to just come out and be aggressive, and see some shots go in. Give a lot of credit to my teammates, you know,” he furthered.
“When I was open they found me; when I wasn’t open they set good screens to get me open. It was a great mixture of them getting me open, finding me, and setting screens, and me just being able to knock down shots. It felt good today.”
It couldn’t get any more relieving for ‘JB’ as he found himself the target of the defending champions’ defense early in the series. But he kept the faith as always, believing that he and Ginebra would eventually figure things out.
Perhaps, it began in Game 3 when he finally knocked down his first triple of the series on the way to finishing with 18 points, leading the crowd darlings to the 85-73 to come alive in the title bout — and avoid falling into a 0-3 hole.
And come Sunday night, Brownlee and Co. seemingly got the answers. He was assertive right from the get-go, firing 15 points in just the opening frame to help set the tone in the crucial victory witnessed live by 16,783 fans at the Big Dome.
“I think when the series goes on, with anybody, not just me, it’s going to be hard to get played a certain way the whole series and not at least figure it out once or twice or maybe even more times. But I think that’s just what it is,” he said.
“They have been playing me very tough and they’re taking away certain things, but I think this game I just found ways to, like I said, with my teammates setting screens and getting me open, I found certain ways where I can get my shot.”
Maybe one can assume that Brownlee’s hot start was because of him losing the Best Import to now two-time winner Rondae Hollis-Jefferson in the awarding rites held before tipoff but all that he has toward the latter is respect.
“Man. That’s a talented dude,” the six-time champion said. “He’s been playing incredibly the whole conference. It’s well-deserved … He’s a huge reason why they’re in the Finals. Congratulations to him. It’s well-deserved.”
Now, it will be all about sustaining their rhythm in the coming games, where the team that gets to two wins first comes out triumphant as the series has now been reduced to a virtual best-of-3 following Sunday night’s result.
“Definitely found the rhythm. But every game is gonna be different,” said Brownlee. “The only thing we expected for the next game coming out is just trying to work for that rhythm because it’s not gonna be easy.
“You gotta work hard, you gotta move without the ball on offense and still try to focus on defense,” he continued.
“We want our defense to help our offense and I think when we get stops, our offense will be better.”
