All is not well in the Barangay
Friday night was thought to be the time Barangay Ginebra snaps out of their funk. But unfortunately, it went the other way around, as they took an 82-87 defeat at the hands of Phoenix Fuel Masters at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
The Gin Kings have now lost their third straight match, their worst slump after a long while. And for head coach Tim Cone, he believes that this is a result of him and his wards not being able play well in the midst of challenges.
“We haven’t played well, we haven’t responded well to being undermanned,” rued Cone, as Ginebra has yet to field in a complete lineup this conference no thanks to injuries of Art Dela Cruz, Joe Devance, and now Greg Slaughter.
Ginebra has always had that “next man up” mentality in handling cases like this. But it seems like it hasn’t been effective lately, as Cone called out young guns Kevin Ferrer and Aljon Mariano for not being able to step up much.
“We expected guys to step up specifically Aljon and Kevin.
“We wanted them to really step up but they just haven’t been capable of playing in the level that we want them to yet,” he rued.
“They’re still young and we’re putting a lot of pressure on them. Their regular role is to be a support player but we need them to come out and be one of our dominant players. Obviously asking too much at this point,” he added.
Ferrer only finished with 11 markers against Phoenix, while Mariano, who had a 15-point, nine-rebound outing against Alaska last Sunday, only had an underwhelming three points — most likey the reason why Cone called them out.
But this backlog is not just about two players. Cone has been looking for other Gin Kings from the bench to contribute in games, but so far, he couldn’t find any.
“The rest of the bench, we’re grasping at straws and see who steps up and plays well. But we’re not finding any straws,” said Cone. “Guys really have to step up and they haven’t been stepping up. If they’re not gonna step up then we have to look at somebody else.”
Ginebra is definitely pressed to return to the win column. But it won’t be an easy task, knowing that they are about to face sister team yet rivals, reigning chamos San Miguel Beermen, this Sunday, January 28, still at the Big Dome.
“It’s not a showdown with San Miguel. The showdown with San Miguel is when we play in the finals. This is not a showdown. This is an elimination game,” said the 60-year-old tactician. “We’re gonna play the best we can.
“We’re injured, we’re playing with one day (preparation), we played a pressure-oriented team so we’re tired from that. But we’ll come in and see if we can live up to our NSD against San Miguel.”
