Justin Brownlee uncharacteristically struggled to put the ball through the hoop in the 2022 PBA Governors’ Cup Finals opener on Wednesday night.
The Best Import frontrunner did finish with 27 points to lead Ginebra, but went just 7-of-20 from the field in easily his worst shooting performance in the conference to date. His shooting average prior was 53.8-percent.
Furthermore, he only collected six rebounds and five assists, among his fewest outputs in the said departments in the season-ending tilt.
Worse, the reigning champions bowed to archrivals Meralco by way of 104-91 decision, falling behind 0-1 in the best-of-seven series.
Still, Bolts head coach Norman Black felt that Brownlee ‘played pretty well’ despite his rough shooting night, saying that he remained a ‘threat.’
“I thought Justin played pretty well tonight,” he said after the match at the SMART Araneta Coliseum. “He might not have shot at the percentage he’s been shooting lately, but I thought he still was an offensive threat out there.
“And, he was somebody that we had to really try to defend every time down the court,” the champion bench tactician furthered.
Brownlee actually scored 18 of his points in the second half, nine in each of the last two quarters as he tried to carry the fight for the Gin Kings.
And he garnered most of his output from the foul line. Though he struggled from the field, he maximized all his trips to the charity stripe as he went 11-of-11.
“It’s always gonna be a challenge to try to slow down JB, because he is so potent and he’s so effective out there on the basketball court,” Black said,
The Grand Slam-winning mentor also noted the performances of Christian Standhardinger and Scottie Thompson for the crowd darlings.
Himself the reigning Governors’ Cup BPC, Standhardinger made 20 points and 14 rebounds. The present leader in the race for the said award, meanwhile, registered a triple-double with 19 markers, 10 boards, and 10 dimes.
“I thought both he (Brownlee) and Stanhardinger played very, very well offensively in this basketball game. I’m not sure how many points Stanhardinger had, but it seemed like he did have a few,” Black said.
“And, of course, Scottie did very, very well offensively in the first half,” he added, as Thompson scored 11 in the first quarter alone.
Now, it’s all about gearing up for the retaliation Brownlee and Ginebra will pull off in Game Two on Friday at the SM Mall of Asia Arena, said Black.
“He shot 7-for-20? Well, I’m sure he’ll probably want to improve on that next game, so we have to be ready to play defense again.”
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