PBA Finals: Justin Brownlee remains upbeat with long series ahead

Justin Brownlee. PBA IMAGES

MANILA, Philippines-Barangay Ginebra’s Game 4 defeat to Bay Area in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup championship series sure left a bad taste in the mouth of the Gin Kings’ resident import.

But Brownlee has plenty of reasons not to get disheartened. The American forward, after all, understands that this series is a long one.

“For sure,” he said of the dampener that was the 94-96 loss on Friday night. “It would have been great if me and Scottie (Thompson), you know, got the award and then won the game.”

“But sometimes, it just doesn’t work out like that,” he went on.

The loss actually weighed doubly heavy for Brownlee that night, as it was during that time he was crowned the tournament’s finest import. On top of that, his triple-double of 23 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists went for naught.

“You just gotta give Bay Area a lot of credit. They came out, took threes, and hit threes. They did a great job on the defensive end,” he said.

“And that’s how the playoffs [are],” he added. “Every game is going to be tough and they came out and played hard.”

Brownlee also refused to accept that Dragons import Andrew Nicholson’s absence caught his crew by surprise.

“We’ve been in this situation, I would say, a couple of times from my time being here,” he said of battling an enemy without an import.

“I think we dealt with it pretty well ’cause we’ve been here before, I don’t think it bothered us. I just think the problem was Bay Area just really came to play, they were very focused. They played with great energy on both sides. And, you know, just gotta tip our cap to them.”

It is worth noting that the three times Brownlee was crowned Best Import, Ginebra went on to win it all.

But he feels that trivia is nothing more than that: a trivia.

“We understand that the series is not over, we haven’t lost the Finals, it’s just one game,” Brownlee said.