By REYNALD MAGALLON
Barangay Ginebra is quickly moving on from the celebrations of the new year as it is looking forward to facing San Miguel Beer once again in the best-of-seven semifinals in the PBA Season 50 Philippine Cup.
Kings head coach Tim Cone said it’s been a working holiday for his team especially with the much-awaited rematch with the Beermen which defeated them last season.
The start of the grudge rematch is set Sunday, Jan. 4, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“Back to work for us. It’s going to be a working holiday for us,” said Cone after Ginebra survived the young but gritty Converge, 99-98, thanks to Stephen Holt’s buzzer-beating triple in overtime.
“Like I said, we have a big opponent coming up. We’ll maybe take a day, at most two,” he added.
The Kings surely need their A-game in the semis especially with the Beermen coming in on a hot streak with 10 straight victories – their latest was against the NLEX Road Warriors in the quarters.
The Kings had a roller-coaster performance in the elims and needed to beat Converge twice to advance to the semis.
And they did.
They forced a sudden death after a breezy105-85 win on Christmas Day.
Despite their twice-to-beat disadvantage, the Gin Kings were prepared to face Converge. That’s because they just pulled off a thrilling 102-100 win over Rain or Shine in Bahrain.
Though certainly familiar with the Beermen, Cone will have to form a plan to limit June Mar Fajardo who has been on a tear for SMB so far in the conference.
“We know them, they know us. We took them to seven games last time. We’ll see if we can flip the script,” said Cone.
“That’s what we’re going to try to do is flip the script this time around. But we know they’re tough,” added the veteran mentor.
After dropping their first two games of the conference, the Beermen rediscovered their offensive rhythm – and went on topple their rivals one after another on way to the topping the elims with a 10-2 card for a twice-to-beat advantage.
