Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net
BOCAUE—Minutes after a raucous celebration died down, just when a Game 7 in the PBA Governors’ Cup Finals had been forged, Meralco coach Norman Black was quick to plant his feet back on earth and tell the media that the kind of opposition he’s up against is not at all lost on him.
“One thing I know about coach Tim (Cone) is that you can’t do anything twice (to him), that’s for sure,” Black said with a straight face when asked if his Bolts could pull out the same dominant game they did on Wednesday night’s Game 6, where an all-time record crowd of 53,642 made its noisy presence felt all night at Philippine Arena here.
“He will figure it out and find a way to get back (at us), so…,” Black said, practically admitting that the burden of adjustment also falls on his shoulders despite having some sort of momentum heading into his franchise’s biggest game.
“It’s us against the world,” Black said with a chuckle as he recounted the experience of coaching in front of that huge crowd.
Meralco pulled off a 98-91 win that necessitated the 7 p.m. rubber match Friday, leading by as large as 20 early before taking the best punches the Gin Kings could throw in the stretch.
Black said that he’s been on both ends of a Game 7, as far as his recollection could take him.
“I remember winning the last two games against Purefoods and David Thirdkill while I was playing coach (at San Miguel),” he said. “But, I also lost a championship to coach Tim when Alaska won the last two games and we couldn’t hold a 3-2 lead (while coaching Sta. Lucia).”
It’s going to be a tall order, Black knows, as he tries to squeeze the best out of his players one more game and gift the franchise its first-ever pro championship.
“It’s just really tough to beat Ginebra, they are well-coached and have crowd support,” Black said. “We really had to fight every second to beat them.”
Triumphing in Game 6 has some of its perks, especially taking that winning feeling into what many great sportsmen have described as “the best two words in sports.”
“We’re where we want to be, ever since the start of the conference,” he said. “We just have to do it one more time and we just have to get it done. One team is going to get it done, for sure, and I hope that it’s us.”
Cone was also quick to dismiss any personal rivalries with his counterpart and downplay coaches’ roles in this beautiful series, which may have seen its bad officiating but is being played with such class by both squads.
“I don’t think experience (in Game 7s) counts here,” Cone said. “We’ve had our share of Game 7s, Norman and I, but I’m not sure [our] experience matters there.”
This game was what Cone and his gang avoided last season after Justin Brownlee hit that buzzer-beating triple off Allen Durham’s face to end Game 6 that ended an eight-year title wait for the Kings.
Ginebra has a 2-1 record in Game 7s, with Cone to handle the Kings in such a game for the first time.
Needless to say, this will be the Bolts’ first Game 7.
Save for the Game 1 rout scored by the Kings, this series has been as tight as it could be.
And no matter which team gets out of this one alive, this series will provide a fitting ending to what has been a very interesting season.