Christian Standhardinger came up with two of the most important baskets that enabled GInebra to take Game Five of the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals.
As Meralco knocked to within a solitary point from a double-digit deficit, the former BPC responded with a jumper from the left elbow off of a Scottie Thompson kick out, then followed it up with a tough fallaway barely a minute later.
“Oh, yeah. Two really crucial ones,” said head coach Tim Cone. “He’s knocking down his jumper, and that is awesome because that adds a weapon to his game and people can’t just sit in the paint on him.
“He works really hard on his shot.”
It was the first four points of a 7-0 run for an eight-point lead with 2:16 left to play. That spurt was punctuated by Thompson’s triple — a shot that may not have come about had it not been for the offensive rebound by Standhardinger.
The Gin Kings went on to conquer the Bolts for the second time in a row, 115-100, to move just one win away from defending their throne.
“Yeah, I knew we needed something. We needed something,” Standhardinger said of those plays moments after the match at the SMART Araneta Coliseum, which welcomed a pandemic record 18,127 fans.
“And I just wanted to play within the offense of Coach Tim and then they gave me that shot, and then I took it. You know, sometimes it goes in, sometimes it doesn’t go in and you can just give your best.
“That’s what my mother always told me, give your best,” the bruising Fil-German forward added with a smile. “I gave it my best shot, and I’m happy it went in today. And I was able to contribute to our victory today”
Standhardinger finished with 13 points on a 50-percent clip from the field, alongside seven rebounds coming off the bench.
The 32-year-old has now upped his per-game averages in the best-of-seven title series to 14.6 markers and 8.8 boards following Sunday night’s outing, further proof that he has been one of Ginebra’s reliables in this playoffs.
His emergence is also indicative of how well he has adjusted since joining the Barangay via trade from NorthPort about a year ago.
And that, according to the former no. 1 pick, is all thanks to the simple reminder of Cone and none other than Ginebra governor Alfrancis Chua.
“It’s much better now. What really helped me a lot is Boss Al. Boss Al told me, ‘Hey, we don’t need you to do anything too special, we don’t need you to score 30 points or 25 points, we just need you to help the team to win.’
“And Coach Tim told me the same thing. That gives a lot of security for a player if I know that I don’t have to force anything and I can just be the best team player I can be,” said Standhardinger.
Hearing such from important people has definitely helped get much pressure off him, allowing him to play his game in the process.
“People underestimate that … they underestimate how much it helps when you tell a player that. In other teams — I played in Europe, I played in Germany, I played in Hong Kong — you kinda have to score, and if you don’t score, but you do all the other work that is not there in the stat sheet, then they will be mad at you and they will tell that you’re not playing good,” Standhardinger said.
“I’m very happy that Boss Al and Coach Tim… they see the other things that I bring to the court. There’s no pressure, and I just can truly focus on winning. And that helps me a lot. I think that’s why I had a much easier time adjusting.”
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