The way LA Tenorio sounded was as if Barangay Ginebra just won on Wedesday.
The Gin Kings dropped Game 2 of the semifinals to the San Miguel Beermen, but that didn’t deter Tenorio’s confidence in his team.
“I think in this game, we were the ones who beat ourselves,” the Ginebra playmaker said. “The most important thing is we know how to beat this team and we have the confidence to beat this team.”
“I think the whole team has the confidence on how to beat [San Miguel].”
Ginebra, however, can’t afford having slow starts and expect to recover every time.
For two games, the Gin Kings found themselves playing catchup and that trend shouldn’t continue for the remainder of the series as far as Tenorio is concerned.
“We need to start strong. That’s the only thing we need to do. We need to play the same way we played in the second half in the first half. We cannot show up in just the second half all the time,” he said.
“We really have to play 48 minutes against this team. They’re very experienced. They know what to do, they know where to go in the crucial time of the game.’
After a scoreless stint in Ginebra’s 115-108 in Game 1 on Tuesday, Tenorio redeemed himself with a team-high 22 points, including 12 in the third quarter, that went with seven assists.
The only problem was he didn’t get the resulted he wanted.
“I wish I never scored so we would’ve won. I’ll take that rather than getting a lot of points, but we lost,” he said.
“The game that we played in Game 1 was not enough to beat this team the second time around. We really have to work harder going to Game 3.”