Game Four of the 2018 Commissioner’s Cup Finals on Friday night yielded a lopsided 130-100 result in favor of the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel over the San Miguel Beermen, which has tied the series at two games apiece.
Given the outcome, the first four games of the best-of-seven series have ended in blowouts. The average margin of games, after Friday, is now 30.3 points, with the widest gap at 38, which was a 132-94 victory by SMB in Game Three.
“That was strange. It has been a strange series,” opined Ginebra’s ultra-decorated head coach Tim Cone, of what has become the trend in this mid-season joust’s titular battle. “I don’t think we’ve seen one like this before.
“They demolished us in Game Two. We were sure they could not do that again in Game Three. Then they demolished us in Game Three. It’s been lobbing hand grenades back at each other.”
The series has been so weird for Cone that he has compared it to the Golden State Warriors-Houston Rockets clash in the 2018 NBA Western Conference Finals.
In that best-of-seven series – which the Warriors eventually won en route to their third championship in four years – the first three games yielded a margin of 25.3 points. The first three games, moreover, were in favor of GSW, 2-1.
“It’s like the Warriors-Rockets series,” said Cone.
But Cone then noted that the lopsided results might have been because of the explosiveness of both his Ginebra and Leo Austria’s Beermen.
“I think what happens is we got two explosive teams. If you allow one team to get momentum, it’s really hard to break because they are that good. The team that can grab momentum is the team that can get it rolling so far.”
Given the circumstances, Cone admitted that he is nervous of how Game Five will turn out. The upcoming match is now the start of their virtual best-of-three, and it will be on Sunday, 7:00 PM, still at the Big Dome.
“We don’t know what’s gonna happen in Game Five. All it does is just scare me even more,” admitted Cone.
“We’ll see.”
