Myles Powell. PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines—Bay Area coach Brian Goorjian hailed Myles Powell for coming through with a big performance that enabled the Dragons to force a Game 7 in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup with an 87-84 win on Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Powell came off the bench to score 29 points in the 87-84 win despite having been sidelined since November due to an injured foot he suffered before the start of the playoffs, prompting the league’s guest team to tap 6-foot-10 Andrew Nicholson.
Goorjian insisted afterward on his earlier pronouncements of Powell being done for the series, but said that it was the explosive guard who insisted that he can help give Bay Area a chance at denying Ginebra’s first crack at the crown.
“I’ve been honest all the way through [that] Myles was done,” Goorjian said. “He wasn’t ready, he hadn’t got anything under his legs [and] the guy that had conditioning and we thought was the closest to coming back was Nick.
“And then, a turn for the worse after Game 6, [Nicholson’s] not gonna be able to play in either game. So I get this tap, saying, ‘I’m ready,’ from the fitness guy telling me, the doctor telling me and Myles saying, ‘Man, I wanna play.’”
There was no doubt in Goorjian’s mind that he wanted Powell out there, but also expressed his reservations since Powell, according to him, is still far from 100 percent.
But the presence of Powell turned out to be what Bay Area needed to get the job done on a night when Ginebra fans—most of the 22,000 that filled the Big Dome—were preparing for another championship party.
“I didn’t know we’re gonna win, I didn’t know he was gonna make the plays he made, but I knew that something special was coming onto that floor tonight,” the Dragons mentor said.
“If he’s not there, if that spirit’s not there, we got no shot tonight. It was groomed for failure, and that was something different than what we’ve had in the whole series.”