Dillinger refuses to call Ginebra-Meralco a ‘rivalry’ yet

Jared Dillinger. Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net

BOCAUE — Despite another hard-fought battle in a PBA Finals series, Jared Dillinger wouldn’t use the word rival to describe Ginebra and Meralco.

Not until Meralco wins on over the crowd favorites.

“Rivals? I wouldn’t call them much of a rival if they beat us twice,” said the outspoken Dillinger after the Bolts surrendered Game 7 to Ginebra, 101-96. “I mean, until we can actually win a championship against them, they’re not really a rival.”

Dillinger couldn’t help but regret to have his best performance of the Finals come too little too late, as he fired a series-best 20 points on a 5-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc, on top of five rebounds and two assists in the clincher.

“I wish my shot came a little bit sooner in this series,” he said. “But that’s the name of the game. Sometimes, your shot’s off, it’s off. You gotta stay positive and find ways to work through it. You gotta try to to help the team in other ways. It happens. My shots are finally falling tonight but it doesn’t matter, we lost. It doesn’t matter anymore. I wish we won so it would be some kind of a rivalry but we didn’t win.”

Dillinger, though, was proud with the fight the Bolts showed in the decider even if they found themselves down by as big as 20 points in the first half.

“We didn’t give up. But when you go down big against Ginebra, especially in the first half like that, it’s gonna be hard. It’s gonna be a grind to get back,” he said, saying that playing catch-up all game long took a toll on the team.

“I think we pretty much lost the game by the first half. We were just playing catch-up the whole time. We wanted to let Ginebra shoot, tried to clog the paint, but tonight they hit their shots.”

Amid all the frustrations, it doesn’t mean that the Bolts couldn’t learn a thing or two from this bridesmaid finish.

“We have great pieces, for sure. We have good solid group of vets and young guys. We have a good team. It’s just we have to continue to build a good culture. We have a great coaching staff, management is very supportive, so we can continue to build.”

Still, one can’t fault Dillinger for feeling bad after botching another chance for the title.

“I’m speechless a little bit. It’s just tough we’re right here again — right at the edge and lose again,” he said.