Ginebra Meralco III offense versus defense

MANILA, Philippines — By the numbers, the Barangay Ginebra-Meralco III could well be offense versus defense.

The stats suggest the Kings would have the advantage on offense with all their firepower but the Bolts could match up with their defensive prowess.

And this adds to the excitement in the fight for the 2019-20 PBA Governors’ Cup crown beginning with Game One tomorrow at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

For one, Ginebra is No. 3 in the tourney in scoring with 105.3 points per game compared to Meralco’s 98.5 an outing but the Bolts rank third on points allowed with 90.8 as opposed to the Gin Kings’ 99.4.

The Kings are tops on field-goal shooting clips to underscore their scoring punch, but the archrivals are almost equal on the other stats departments, indicating that it could really be a matter of making the shots for Ginebra and making the stops for Meralco.

Meralco coach Norman Black does preach playing defense as the key to winning the crown.

Ginebra counterpart Tim Cone would love his team to put tremendous effort defensively, but they’re really much of a scoring team with much weapons in Justin Brownlee, Stanley Pringle, Japeth Aguilar, LA Tenorio, Greg Slaughter, Jeff Chan, Scottie Thompson and Art dela Cruz.

But the Bolts somehow have proved they can do the defensive job versus the Kings in their 101-77 rout in their elims tussle last Nov. 3.

The imports’ numbers are almost equal as well.

Allen Durham norms 30.9 points, 15.2 rebounds and 6.5 assists for Meralco while Justin Brownlee averages 29.0 points, 13.6 boards, 7.2 dole-outs and 2.0 steals for Ginebra.

Top locals to watch for the Kings are Pringle (16.9 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.4 assists), Aguilar (13.8 markers, 7.3 boards, 1.8 assists and 1.7 blocks) and Tenorio (13.3 points, 5.3 dish-offs and 4.0 rebounds).

There are also Slaughter, Chan, Thompson and Dela Cruz who average at least 6.8 points each.

Durham has his own key local backups in Baser Amer, Chris Newsome, Raymond Almazan, Allein Maliksi, Bong Quinto and Anjo Caram.

Amer is Meralco’s leading local scorer with 14.2 points on top of other norms of 3.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.2 steals. Newsome is also a scoring threat with 13.6 points an outing while Almazan provides inside presence with 11.2 points and 9.8 boards per game.