Justin Brownlee (left) has been consistent, but can’t do it all every game for the Kings
Having been in the league for as long as he has, Tim Cone knows that there’s no use crying over spilled milk in the PBA.
That why the two-time Grand Slam-winning coach was in no mood to dwell on the details of a loss to Meralco on Sunday night in the Governors’ Cup eliminations, where the Gin Kings seemingly had nothing more to give in the stretch and allowed the Bolts to escape with a 101-95 victory.
“We take solace in the fact that we played a really tough team [tonight] and we fell short,” Cone said after his wards failed to hold on to a two-point lead—and some sort of momentum—entering the final five minutes. “That shouldn’t really hurt our confidence too much.”
Looking to wrest control all night, Ginebra finally secured a slim edge over Meralco midway through the fourth period. But errors and sorry misses brought them back to the backseat, ultimately dooming its bid.
“The bad [stretch] came out in the last six, eight minutes of the game. We just didn’t play very well. We rushed, we got beat defensively in ways we shouldn’t have gotten beat,” Cone said.
A huge shortage in manpower is also to blame. But knowing Cone, excuses like that are what he usually keeps to himself to drive the others on the team to be better.
Instead, Cone wants everyone to move forward and do something they still have control of.
“We got a tough schedule, we got TNT and San Miguel next,” he said. “We don’t have much time to worry about this game, just move on and get set for the next time.”
And he knows exactly what to do to be able to compete with the powerhouse Tropang Giga and Beermen come Friday and Sunday.
“We need better production from our big lineup. Our big lineup is not coming together as we hoped for, so they need to come together better,” he went on.
Big men must deliver
Ginebra’s Christian Standhardinger. PBA IMAGES
Cone feels that his big lineup of “Japeth [Aguilar], Christian [Standhardinger] and Arvin [Tolentino] need to be able to play together a lot better,” in order for the Kings to “take advantage” of its lineup—or what is left of it.
“If they can’t mix well together, then we’d have to bring them one-by-one and eventually taking advantage of the other persons in the team,” he went on.
Ginebra has been missing Stanley Pringle, Jared Dilinger, Sidney Onwubere, Aljon Mariano and Joe Devance, but the team is making do with its other stars and its role players like Prince Caperal, the newly acquired Nard Pinto, and veteran Jeff Chan.
Onwubere suffered a bad high ankle sprain in the Gin Kings’ clash with Magnolia last Christmas and is likely out for the rest of the conference.
This being a short conference where teams sometimes play four games a week, Cone knows that getting someone out of injury bay is not as easy as it sounds.
Cone still has the yardstick of imports in Justin Brownlee, but making him work ragged night in and out—and with the teams’ games bunched so closely together—could ultimately take its toll and tell on the team when the stakes become higher in the playoffs.
Hence, the need to have all hands available on deck and for them to contribute.
“Basically, we’re going to have to go with who we have,” Cone said.