ANTIPOLO — Justin Brownlee stays optimistic even after suffering a hamstring injury during Barangay Ginebra’s eventual victory over Phoenix to advance to the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup semifinals on Friday night.
The three-time Best Import said that there’s no pain in a quick chat with reporters before heading to the Ynares Center exits, but still keeps his fingers crossed that he feels the same tomorrow, when the adrenaline subsides.
“I just had a little tweak,” he said after their 112-81 win as they maximized their win-once quarterfinal incentive. “On that play, driving to the rim, I just felt something.
“Hopefully it ain’t too bad, but just felt a little something.”
Brownlee was seen clutching on to his right hamstring shortly after attacking the rim at the 8:16-mark of the third canto and would hit the locker room about a minute later to get checked by the team’s medical staff further.
He would, however, no longer return to the game as a precautionary measure, reducing the Kings to an all-Filipino lineup the rest of the night.
That, of course, caused lots of concerns within the Barangay, but ‘JB’ felt relieved that his squad had already built a big lead when he left.
“Good thing we were up big and gotta give a lot of credit to the team, they closed out the third quarter and finished the game very well,” he said.
Brownlee left the game with 24 points, five rebounds, and five assists. He scored 22 in the first half as he helped put together their second-quarter pullaway, where they turned a one-point edge into a 64-44 lead at the half.
And thanks to their dominant win, Ginebra became the second team to reach the semis, where it will be taking on Rain or Shine in a best-of-7 series.
The Kings saw what the Elasto Painters did to reach the Final Four–the latter eliminated San Miguel Beer earlier in the night–and so, all of them are bracing for a challenging affair ahead that commences next Wednesday.
“We’ve seen what Rain or Shine did to them. It was a very tough game, but their style of play is very difficult to handle. It’s gonna be difficult for us, but we’re up for the challenge,” said the six-time league champion.
“We know we beat them in the eliminations, so we know they wanna get some get-back for that,” he added, recalling their 114-90 win last May 3.
“But we’re ready for the challenge, and we’re just expecting a hard, tough series.”
