Slaughter remains day-to-day; Cone says center still in pain
The health status of Greg Slaughter remains “day-to-day,” according to Ginebra head coach Tim Cone on Tuesday night.
The Gin Kings center has already missed six games due to a sprained left ankle and he could sit out for a longer period of time with him still questionable for Game 4 of the 2018 PBA Philippine Cup semifinals on Thursday.
“I don’t know when Greg is gonna be back. We’re working on him everyday, we’ve got trainers in his house,” Cone told reporters after Ginebra avoided a 3-0 hole with a 95-87 win over defending champion San Miguel Beer in Game 3.
Cone bared Slaughter is still experiencing pain and swelling on his foot and that his size makes it harder for the 7-foot Cebuano to recover quickly.
“He still got swelling and pain in the foot so it’s different for 7-footers, 7-feet, 280-pound guys than like me, 5-10, 180 pounds,” Cone said. “But it’s a lot different for him and us because there’s just too much weight that goes on into that ligament and it’s just really hard to heal than it is for smaller guys.”
“So we have to keep that into account and we also want to keep this long term health in mind so there are a lot of factors as to whether he can play or not,” he added. “As of now, he can’t play. We’ll see again tomorrow and we’ll see again on Thursday. It’s really day-to-day at this point.”
The Gin Kings, however, were able to overcome Slaughter’s absence this time with their other big men stepping up.
Japeth Aguilar scored a game-high 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds while Prince Caperal and Jervy Cruz combined for 24 points and eight rebounds.
LA Tenorio also broke out of his slump with 18 points after only tallying 14 points in the first two games of the series.
