Tim Cone hardly complains about officiating, but even he could no longer hold back after Barangay Ginebra fell short in its bid to build a 2-0 lead over TNT in the PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup Finals, Friday night.
“That’s one thing I don’t normally do. But I just felt the crew was not a good crew tonight, and they gotta have a better crew next time out,” he told reporters moments after their 101-94 Game 2 loss at the SMART Araneta Coliseum
The league’s winningest mentor rued the number of free throws Justin Brownlee had to prove his point, believing that the three-time Best Import hasn’t been getting the calls he deserves despite his aggressiveness offensively.
‘JB’ was only 4-for-4 from the free-throw line. Including their 102-100 Game 1 escape last Wednesday, he’s only been given a total of six.
“Justin had four free throws. He only took three three-point shots, and yet he only got four free throws. He was going to the rim, he was getting around the basket, and wasn’t getting the call all night,” Cone said.
Yet, Brownlee and the crowd darlings managed to come back from as much as 21 down. They even got to within a single possession, 98-94, with under a minute remaining after the naturalized wing got away with an easy layup.
But that proved to be their last stand, as Chris McCullough and Calvin Oftana closed it out by, ironically, going a combined 2-for-3 from the charity stripe.
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“We tried to make a run back, but we couldn’t get a break from the referees. I thought it was a terrible crew tonight,” the 68-year-old Gilas head coach said.
Cone, however, isn’t pinning the blame all on the refs. Their Game 2 defeat, he felt, was simply because the Barangay weren’t mentally present.
Another factor, he added, was fatigue catching up to the crew, since they’ve barely had time to recover from a grueling best-of-7 semifinal series against the younger Rain or Shine, which lasted for six games.
“We came out with no fire in the belly tonight,” Cone said. “I don’t know if it’s caught up to us, that tough series with Rain or Shine and not having a break.
“We haven’t taken a day off in three weeks. And I think it just kinda all caught up to us; we just weren’t ready to play tonight. That’s on me.”
The next 24 hours will be about figuring out the best possible adjustments, as they try to regain control of the series in Game 3 on Sunday.
“That came down to the fact that we just didn’t show up tonight at the beginning of the game. We had three assists, I think, in the first half,” he said.
“That’s just not us. Tip your cap to TNT for their defense … We gotta find some answers.”
#WATCH: THE CREW WASN’T GOOD TONIGHT 🏀
Tim Cone said the grind of the #PBA50 Commissioner’s Cup playoffs and “terrible officiating” got the best of them in Game 2 of the Finals#ReadMore 👉 https://t.co/UuGXyM4eOu
📹 @justinebacnis /Tiebreaker Times pic.twitter.com/9cxLKpV5gH
— Tiebreaker Times (@tiebreakertimes) June 5, 2026
