Tenorio admits Ginebra ‘step slower’ in Game 1 as fatigue takes its toll

By: Randolph B. Leongson - 6 years ago

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net

Not that he’s using anything as an excuse, but LA Tenorio admitted fatigue has gotten the better of Ginebra after playing its fourth game in a week on Saturday.

“I don’t want to make an excuse, but I think the fatigue factor is already there,” he said on the heels of Ginebra’s 90-102 Game 1 defeat to San Miguel in the curtain-raiser of their 2018 PBA Philippine Cup semifinals.

After surviving a triple-overtime duel against Rain or Shine to end the eliminations and secure the fourth-seed last Friday, the Gin Kings had to go through another set of tough games against the Elasto Painters in the quarterfinals before taking on the top-seed Beermen on Friday.

Tenorio believes that those grindout games all contributed to Ginebra’s lackluster play in the semis opener.

“Physically, our effort is there. Of course, when we’re playing, we want to give our best effort, but we’re one step slow in this game and they’re really on fire. Execution-wise, they were really on-point, from the first group to second group, even up to the third group. They’re really active coming into this game,” he said.

The Beermen had their way on offense, shooting 50-percent from the field while also being the more aggressive team on the break, outscoring the Gin Kings, 23-11 in fastbreak points.

Ginebra also gobbled the ball up 25 times, which led to 22 easy points for San Miguel.

Despite the loss, Tenorio is confident the Gin Kings will be more than prepared in Game 2 on Sunday as they avoid a dangerous 0-2 hole in the best-of-seven series.

“Fatigue factor will not be an excuse again next game for us. Definitely, we’ll be ready for the next game,” he said. “Good news is this is a best-of-seven. It would be nice if we got Game 1 coming off three hard games, but again, me personally I’ve played 56, 39 and 39 minutes for the past three games. I’m not saying that I’m making an excuse, but maybe mentally, we’re not down and we’re just one step slower in this game.”

He knows they can’t afford to lag behind the Beermen again for the rest of the way.

“It just so happened that San Miguel is complete and they’re really strong team. That’s why they’re the defending champions for the last three years. So we just have to be ready and we can’t afford to make mistakes every possession.”