Mikey Williams vowed to be much better as he was far from the usual in TNT’s PBA Governors’ Cup quarterfinals duel with Ginebra, Wednesday night.
The Best Player of the Conference contender did end up with 19 points but shot just 6-of-18 from the field, including 4-of-10 from beyond the arc.
Worse, his Tropang Giga lost, 94-102, failing to take full advantage of the win-once incentive they’ve earned for a quicker way to enter the semifinals.
“I got to be better on my mind and contribute better,” he said after the match at SMART Araneta Coliseum.
“I could have done a lot of things better today and I’m going to get back to watching film and … controlling what I can control.”
Part of his struggles was the varying looks on defense the Barangay had thrown his way, one of which was counterpart Nards Pinto.
Well, the two were actually seen exchanging words in the final seconds of the third, when Pinto fouled Willams when he dribbled hard to his right.
The 30-year-old, however, got one against his foe, hitting a three right in his face to end the quarter with TNT knocking within just one, 70-71.
“I know what Pinto is about,” said Williams. “He’s tough, gritty, a great defender and he’s going to try to be physical with me.”
“Sometimes, it’s a little over physical that they get away with it. It’s okay, that’s part of the game. I’m just chirping back,” furthered the Rookie-MVP frontrunner. “[I] wanted to let him know that I’m not going to stand for that.”
But then, the night belonged to the Gin Kings, as they went on to score their first win against TNT since the 2020 Philippine Cup Finals. More importantly, though, the win prevented them from heading to an early vacation.
Williams expects that kind of physicality to take place once again in Saturday’s all-important match, and he’s coming in prepared much better.
“So next game I got something for all that. Got to counteract everything that they’re doing,” the California-born cager said.
The loss to their corporate rivals, furthermore, doesn’t shake Williams’ confidence towards the Tropa’s chances of reaching the next round.
“We just got to get back to the drawing board. It’s only Game One,” the 2021 Philippine Cup Finals MVP said. “We know we have a lot of things to clean up — made a lot of mistakes out there that we can definitely counteract.
“It’s all about just getting back to work and getting the preparation right, fixing the things that we need to fix. and fixing the details that we can control, and hopefully, change the outcome [of the] next game.“
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