A win away from finals, Ginebra has ‘no right to feel tired’

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One by one, Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone began to pull his starters out late in the third quarter of Game 4 until second and third stringers were left on the floor.

Cone knew there was no point in letting his stars tire in a game that had already been lost as early as the second quarter.

At the end of San Miguel Beer’s 101-72 win to force a semifinals decider, Cone felt his players were “worn out” after a frenetic Game 3 won by the Kings on a buzzer-beater by Japeth Aguilar.

But Ginebra point guard LA Tenorio doesn’t think that was the case.

“Fatigue is not a factor especially if you’re hungry. Especially us, Ginebra, we don’t have the right to feel tired because we waited too long for this moment and I don’t think we’re going to let this chance go to waste,” Tenorio told reporters Sunday night.

“Fatigue is not a reason. We’ll need the rest, probably, after the finals. I don’t think fatigue is a factor,” he added.

It’s been eight years since Ginebra won the title and the last time the Gin Kings made the semifinals was in 2013, when they also reached the Commissioner’s Cup Finals that ended in a sweep at the hands of the Alaska Aces.

A win away from ending a painful drought, Ginebra hasn’t come this close to a goal.

But the closer it gets, the harder it becomes.

“Actually, it’s not about the technicals anymore for next game. It’s whoever wants to win more. It’s all about the mental game. It’s do-or-die,” Tenorio said after scoring 17 points and playing less than 30 minutes for just the third time this season.

Tenorio and company were out of it early as the Beermen delivered the knockout punch in the form of a flurry of 3-pointers from Marcio Lassiter in the second quarter.

It was a humiliating loss made worse as a crowd of close to 23,000 fans, mostly rallying behind Ginebra, stayed until the final buzzer only to see their team put up a futile effort in a big game.

“Such a beautiful crowd last night, yet we fell flat on our faces. We’re so sorry to let the fans down. They were great even if we were not,” Cone posted on his Twitter account Monday on the eve of Game 5. “BUT we will pick ourselves up and fight for the fans in Game 5. We will make you proud.”

“We’ll see what kind of game we’re going to play. We’ve been in this situation for the past conferences. So hopefully, we’ve learned from the last conferences that we failed especially with this kind of loss,” Tenorio said. “It’s a really wakeup call that it’s not gonna be easy against San Miguel and nothing really comes easy in winning a championship. It’s always hard and it’s made harder because we’re going against San Miguel. And it’s like that. We move forward and we’re very positive and we’re still confident that we can beat this team.”