Struggling to find words after his Barangay Ginebra San Miguel suffered another humiliating defeat at the hands of the San Miguel Beermen on Wednesday evening, decorated head coach Tim Cone opted not to attend the post-game press conference.
As he stormed out of the historic SMART-Araneta Coliseum, the winningest head coach in league history only had a few words.
“I have nothing to say other than I’m embarrassed by our performance and that they are too good for us.”
After picking up a decisive 127-99 Game One win, the Gin Kings were dealt back-to-back routs in a span of four days. And if a 25-point Game Two beatdown was not enough, the Beermen handed the Barangay a 38-point whipping in Game Three.
The 38-point decimation equaled the highest-ever margin in a Finals game. Ironically, it was Cone’s Alaska team back in the 1998 All Filipino Cup Finals that handed the San Miguel Beermen a 99 -61 win during Game 6 of that series, according to PBA lead statistician Fidel Mangonon.
But Ginebra managed to keep pace with San Miguel in the first half, falling behind by just two points thanks to their excellent 55.3 percent shooting clip.
But then San Miguel zoned in after the halftime break, scoring 39 points in a third quarter blast as the Beermen dominated the boards, while the tandem of Renaldo Balkman and Chris Ross pounded Ginebra’s defense. San Miguel would lead by as much as a whopping 40 points in the contest.
As Cone said after Game One, “All we did basically was stir up the bee hive, and they’re gonna be coming back, sting us big time.”
