Amid Ginebra’s injury woes, Cone expects more from Ferrer, Mariano

Barangay Ginebra has not been the picture of excellence with its current situation in the PBA Philippine Cup.

The Gin Kings just lost in disappointing fashion to Phoenix, 87-82, in the PBA Philippine Cup and that blow saw them slip to their third straight loss for a 2-3 record.

And as Ginebra continues to struggle with injuries, head coach Tim Cone said his remaining players isn’t hauling the weight he expected them to do.

“We haven’t played well. We haven’t responded well to being undermanned. We expected guys to step up specifically Aljon [Mariano] and Kevin [Ferrer],” said Cone Friday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

READ: Phoenix holds on as Ginebra comeback fizzles 

“We wanted them to step up but they just haven’t been capable of playing in the level we want them to yet.”

Ginebra faced Phoenix without 7-foot center Greg Slaughter, who is recovering from a strained hamstring he suffered in practice, and forward Joe Devance, who is still recuperating from a foot surgery.

What’s left of the team is a bench that has yet to fill in the gap of the two big men.

“We’re grasping at straws and see who steps up and plays well but we’re not finding any straws,” said Cone whose team mustered to outscore Phoenix 29-12 in the fourth but still came up short.

“It’s been a tough stretch, you don’t want to play this badly when you got a couple of guys go down. You still want to come out.”