Ginebra head coach Tim Cone left the SMART Araneta Coliseum utterly disappointed — and puzzled — after losing to Meralco on Friday night.
It was totally understandable, since the Kings got blown out and ended their unbeaten two-game start into the PBA Season 48 Philippine Cup.
“Embarrassing. That’s all I’ve got to say,” the champion bench tactician told members of the press while on the way out of the Big Dome. “We’re just absolutely embarrassed from moment 1 to moment 10. Forty-eight minutes.”
The Kings were coming off solid wins against Rain or Shine and Phoenix to begin the season-ending conference, and were keen on extending their streak against a Bolts crew that was in the midst of a two-game slide.
But they started out flat and that became the story for the rest of the night. They trailed by as many as 31 points before falling to a 91-73 result.
What could be a big factor was the absence of lead playmaker Scottie Thompson, who’s still on the sidelines due to a nagging back issue.
Another possible reason could be the way the crowd darlings handled the rock as it committed 19 turnovers — the crew is now averaging 18.3 TOs three games into the all-Filipino tournament. The Bolts only had six.
The Kings, furthermore, had a rough night offensively as well. They made just 33.3-percent of their 60 field goal attempts, including a paltry 3-of-21 clip from beyond the arc. That, after drilling 16 against the Fuel Masters.
But then, Cone couldn’t think of what went wrong whatsoever, and the 65-year-old mentor is only hoping that this won’t be the case this conference.
“I don’t have answers to any questions. I don’t know what the hell happened,” he said.
“It’s an embarrassing night. We just hope this doesn’t define us.”
