Webb on drawing Cone, Ginebra in PBA quarterfinals: It's our fault

MANILA, Philippines -- Star rookie coach Jason Webb disliked the fact that the Hotshots will be drawing Barangay Ginebra and former coach Tim Cone as their opponents when the Smart Bro-PBA Philippine Cup playoffs kicks off on Christmas Day.

But after struggling to a 4-7 win-loss card in the single-round eliminations, Webb said they have no choice but face a red-hot Kings side that has gone 6-1 in their last seven games.

“I think they (Kings) are already comfortable with what they are doing and they already realized their strengths inside,” Webb told Philstar.com shortly after the team’s Monday practice at Ronac gym.

“So sila kalaban namin sa playoffs and kami, we need to survive. We can’t be choosy at this point dahil kasalanan din naman namin kung bakit nandito kami,” he said, whose team enters the playoffs ranked as the ninth seed.

The youthful-looking freshman coach said his battle-scarred veterans led by James Yap, Marc Pingris, Mark Barroca, Peter June Simon and Alex Mallari are well-versed with Cone’s triangle offense, a system he used with much success during his four-year coaching stint with the Purefoods franchise from 2012-2015.

But Webb believes such familiarity has its disadvantages aside from advantages.

“There’s a negative and positive side to that (familiarity with the triangle). For one, they might be too passive if you know what they do as opposed to trying to be aggressive,” explained Webb.

The Star mentor isn’t looking far too ahead though, saying the immediate goal is to defend the post well, since Cone has managed to draw the best from his young “Twin Towers” Greg Slaughter and Japeth Aguilar in his first conference as Ginebra coach.

The 6-foot-11 Slaughter, a leading Best Player of the conference candidate, averages career-high numbers of 23.4 points and 15 rebounds in the all-Filipino.

Aguilar on the other hand owns solid stats line of 17.2 points, 8.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per contest.

“I hope we play better defense when we face them and we’ll shoot the ball well the way we did when we played them the last time,” said Webb, whose team built a 31-point lead before settling for an 86-78 decision against Ginebra on Oct. 25.

Meantime, Star’s veteran playmaker Mark Barroca said everyone is motivated to face Cone, hopeful that a win in the quarterfinals against Ginebra could serve as a morale booster for the Hotshots.

“Para sa amin, motivation yung makalaban namin ang Ginebra saka si coach Tim,” Barroca said.

The 5-foot-10 former FEU guard said solid team defense is required for the Hotshots to have a shot at forcing a sudden death, knowing that Cone has harnessed the strengths of Slaughter and Aguilar.

“Alam kasi ni coach Tim na may mga matatangkad siya. Dun siya naka-focus,” noted the one-time Finals MVP.

“So kailangan namin maiwasang mag-seal si Greg sa ilalim kundi mahihirapan kami.”