By REYNALD MAGALLON
Barangay Ginebra may have tied the semifinals series against Rain or Shine to 1-1 after its Game 2 win but the pressure has not eased for the Kings.
Not one bit.
The Kings put up a better performance in the second game of the series, holding off the Elasto Painters for a 109-101 victory but head coach Tim Cone believes his team is getting the short end of the stick in terms of how the games are being played so far.
According to the veteran mentor, Ginebra is still facing a dilemma in trying to control the tempo of the game and fight in what he deemed an ‘energy war’ against Rain or Shine.
“We don’t want to play slow but we certainly don’t want to play as fast as they play,” said Cone after the contest that reduced the series to a virtual best-of-five affair.
While they won Game 2, Cone believes the current pace of the games still favor Rain or Shine and that is becoming a cause of concern as he ended up overplaying his key players like Justin Brownlee, Scottie Thompson and RJ Abarrientos.
And that concern was really visible in the second half of Game 2 when the Elasto Painters, behind their fresher legs and deep rotation, came tantalizingly close of pulling off a comeback from 24 points down.
“They kept the pace up and wore us down and came down to the 4th quarter and they gave themselves a chance to win,” Cone pointed out
“We played right into it but it’s hard not to, because they come at you in waves and you’re trying to do your best, from a coaching standpoint, to get your guys rested so they can be fresh in that 4th quarter.”
“It’s very difficult because you’re really overplaying Justin, RJ, Troy, Scottie. From a coaching standpoint, you expect them to do that. You just hope that you have enough energy down the stretch to hold them at bay,” he added.
With a one-day turnaround before Game 3, Ginebra needs to find that extra energy to compete against the high-octane pace of ROS.
“Again, this is the style they want to play because they want to come into Sunday, wear us out through Friday so they can come in and play us again on Sunday and win the energy war,” said Cone.
“it’s really finding that tempo that’s going to save Justin a little bit, going to save the other guys a little bit and keep them fresh for the fourth quarter,” he explained.
