Normally quick-witted, Tim Cone took some time to collect his ideas on Sunday evening as he was requested whether or not he’s bothered by Barangay Ginebra’s longer path to a twice-to-beat safety within the Philippine Basketball Affiliation Commissioner’s Cup playoffs.
“Uhm … not an excessive amount of at this level. I imply, sure, we’re aware of it. It’s a aim of ours. However we’re actually attempting to method every sport and play every sport the identical with follow,” he mentioned on the heels of a gutsy 122-105 victory over pesky NorthPort Sunday evening at PhilSports Area in Pasig Metropolis.
“[That is] simply attempting to get higher with what we’re doing. It’s new to a whole lot of gamers what we’re doing,” Cone went on. “It’s a course of. We’re extra targeted on the method than the aim itself.”
Counting the victory over the Batang Pier, the Gin Kings would’ve pocketed the quarterfinal bonus had they received over the NLEX final Friday. As an alternative, the group darlings—now 8-3 and tied with Converge at No. 3—will now hope for a few eventualities to go their approach so as to safe such a mouthwatering perk.
“Proper now, we don’t management our future,” Cone mentioned. “We now have to have Magnolia lose in opposition to Rain or Shine and we have now to win [against the FiberXers] to get to prime two.”
Door left ajar
“We opened the door [to Magnolia] final sport once we misplaced to NLEX and you recognize, Magnolia stormed by means of that door by successful within the first sport. So like I mentioned, we have now no management over that,” the veteran coach went on.
The Hotshots used a third-quarter scoring frenzy to defeat Meralco within the curtain-raiser and rise to 9-2. Ginebra nonetheless has a door open, because the Gin Kings beat the Hotshots within the eliminations and would win out in case of a tie.
“We need to management the issues we might, and that’s the method of the day-to-day, getting higher. I do know it’s boring, however that’s the best way we will method it,” Cone mentioned.
Ginebra seemed the half throughout the conflict in opposition to NorthPort, with new guys Jamie Malonzo and Jeremiah Grey—whom Cone earlier considered “weak hyperlinks”—making large performs for the fancied crew all evening lengthy.
Malonzo, the high-leaping, two-way ahead acquired forward of the midseason showcase, put up 26 factors and had 5 blocks in opposition to his former workforce; whereas Grey chalked up 12 factors that went with 4 rebounds and three assists.
Monotonous method
Cone mentioned Malonzo—for all his brilliance on each ends of the court docket—remains to be looking for his approach by means of what Ginebra does, one thing he additionally identified when speaking about Grey within the Gin Kings’ earlier video games.
“And it’s irritating for him, and oftentimes irritating for me and all people [else] as a result of we need to be a decent, tight workforce with what we’re doing. However we’re working in direction of that,” he mentioned.
And as Ginebra sticks with its monotonous method, all of the Kings can actually do now could be let the chips fall the place they might.
“We’re simply blissful we nonetheless have one thing to combat for at this level,” Cone mentioned. “We’ll hopefully come out with a win.”
“We’ll cheer for Yeng [Guiao] and cheer in opposition to our sister workforce if that’s the case,” he added with a chuckle. “We’ll be cheering loudly in opposition to our sister workforce if we’re in a position to beat Converge on Wednesday.” INQ
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