There seems to be no stopping the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel at this point of the 2018 Commissioner’s Cup.
Once fighting for dear life in the mid-season conference, Ginebra are now on the verge of clinching a quarterfinal spot after collecting their fourth straight victory at the expense of the Alaska Aces, 105-86, Sunday night.
The Barangay, who experienced going down to as deep as 1-5 in the team standings, have now hiked their record to an even 5-5. Moreover, the Gin Kings have gained a share of the sixth spot with the GlobalPort Batang Pier (5-5).
And for Justin Brownlee, this is all because of their playoff mindset.
“I think it’s just the mindset of the whole team. Everyone was just down, when we were 1-5,” said Brownlee moments after the match, where he anchored Ginebra with a near triple-double of 28 points, nine rebounds, and eight assists.
Going 1-5 – especially in a tourney such as this – would definitely wake anyone up. One more loss, and their hopes of getting into the quarters would have been out of their hands, since they would have to pray for some shakeups with the other teams.
For Brownlee, the day after they absorbed their fifth loss – a 97-104 defeat to defending champions San Miguel Beermen – woke up the Gin Kings. And from that point on, Ginebra were suddenly on another level.
“I remember coming to practice the next day after we lost to San Miguel, everyone just wanted to go at it and get better,” he recalled.
“Everybody’s mindset was still just positive even though we haven’t had much success early in the conference.”
