Kings not yet confident on triangle says Cone

MANILA, Philippines -- Tim Cone's first win as coach of Barangay Ginebra may be ugly, but the well-respected mentor is confident the Kings can smoothen things out as they play more games in the PBA's 41st season.

"The guys are still not confident with what they're doing. They have stretches where they play beautifully, but also they have stretches where we look really ugly. We had a beautiful first half, but just as ugly second half," Cone said, just hours after Ginebra averted another second-half collapse to squeak past Alaska, 93-92 early Sunday in the PBA's Philippine Cup game in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

"But I think we'll smooth that out in the coming games. In the meantime, I'll applaud our guys for finding a way to pull that win out," he added.

Ginebra opened the season with back-to-back defeats to Star (86-78) and Barako Bull (82-79), in a game that saw the Kings blow a huge 21-points, first-half advantage.

Against the Aces, Cone said their character was tested once more.

"We hung on for dear life. Alaska is always so good at coming back. Their pressure is relentless and tough to overcome," noted the American coach, who has won five  PBA titles in the last four seasons while coaching Star.

Nonetheless, Ginebra leaned on another Herculean performance from star center Greg Slaughter, who banged in 27 points and 19 rebounds.

The big man out of Ateneo nailed six straight free throws, including a pair from the stripe in the dying seconds that proved to be the marginal points.

"We'll move on from there. I'm all about moving on," said Cone, the league's all-time winning PBA coach.

Ginebra takes a weeklong break to fine tune its triangle offense and defense before swinging back to action against defending champion San Miguel next Sunday at the Philsports Arena.