Hotshooting Brownlee still looking to elevate intensity of his game

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net

Scorching hot from downtown in Ginebra’s 96-85 win over GlobalPort, Justin Brownlee said that he truly felt he had the golden touch in their quarterfinal duel on Tuesday.

“I just felt really well, felt great tonight. Everything I shot felt like it was going in and I’m just blessed to have that feeling,” said Brownlee after going 7-of-11 from beyond the arc to lead the Gin Kings with 39 points nine rebounds, and four assists.

Brownlee’s impressive shooting display propelled Ginebra to the 2017 PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinals, where it now awaits its opponent between TNT or Meralco.

Though the game brought a lot of confidence to the returning import, he knows that they must still level up their game as the playoffs run deeper.

“It was fun tonight but we’re not satisfied. We’re looking at the semis and try to perform the same way, or even better,” he said. “We just to get better in everything. Whether it’s setting screens or playing help defense, we know we have to elevate our game even higher, especially at this point, not necessarily doing things differently or better, just elevating our intensity, whether it’s offense or defense, I think we’ll be OK.”

Brownlee braces for a tougher war against hulking reinforcements in either the KaTropa’s Joshua Smith or the Bolts’ Alex Stepheson.

But despite the obvious size disadvantage for the Gin Kings, the 6-foot-5 forward thinks that the team can make up for it in some way.

“Looking at the two imports, for sure, they’re going to have an advantage on us inside. But I think we can defend them very well with our team effort. With the advantages they have, we got some advantages for us, too,” he said.

“We just want to go out there, play hard, play to the best way that we can. Whoever it is, whether it’s Smith of TNT or Stepheson of Meralco, coach Tim (Cone) is sure to have a gameplan for them and we’ll try to execute the best that we can.”