Ginebra, Meralco in pivotal Game 3

MANILA, Philippines — Who will hold sway in a livewire PBA Governors’ Cup title series that, as advertised, showcases protagonists fighting tooth and nail, neither ready to give an inch?

Locked in a 1-1 standoff, the Meralco Bolts and Ginebra Gin Kings battle for control tonight at the Smart Araneta Colseum, each carrying dogged determination to seize whatever edge it could in this back-and-forth confrontation.

The Gin Kings gave the defensive-savvy Bolts a dose of their own medicine in taking Game 1 in thrilling come-from-behind-fashion, 91-87. The Bolts borrowed a page from the offensive-minded Gin Kings and shot a franchise finals record 16 treys in scoring the series equalizer in Lucena City, 104-102.

Now the chess match of the two teams’ cerebral coaches, Tim Cone and Norman Black, continues at 6: 30 p.m.

Cone threw Meralco import Allen Durham off his rhythm with a rarely-used box-and-one defense in the road gig, shackling the usually effective import to just 21 points on a 3-of-9 clip from two-point area and 3-of-5 from the deep, and enabling Ginebra to get back in the game after falling behind by 19.

“They pulled a box-and-1 (in Game 2) and we want to do a better job against it on Sunday,” said Meralco coach Norman Black, who broke a four-game slump in out-of-town assignments with the huge victory in Lucena. 

“I thought we actually did a pretty good job against it in the second half once we realized they were in a box-and-one. We were able to do a better job at it. But at the same time, it changed the momemtum. Now we want to be more prepared (against it) next game,” he added.

Cone said they utilized such “gimmick defense” to make up for their overall sloppy defending.

“We had to use a gimmick defense to do it and that’s not going to do it for the whole series,” he said. “We just got to get better defensively. It was a very poor defensive team tonight and I don’t know, they were able to do exactly what they wanted in both games and we’re lucky to win the first one. At this point, we got a lot to go back to our drawing board,” he said.

Meralco’s torrid shooting was complemented by the stepped-up performances off the bench by John Pinto, Nico Salva and Anjo Caram, who sparked the Bolts to 29 bench points versus Ginerba’s 12.

“My bench really stepped up and played very, very well. They gave us a lift,” said Black. 

With starter Baser Amer waxing hot with 5-of-9 three-point shooting and Pinto making four of seven, Meralco reset a franchise record with 16 treys, four more than their old mark of 12. This came after a woeful outside shooting in Game 1 that forced Black to call out his blanks-firing snipers.

“We did very little shooting for this game so the guys came up with more confidence and we’re able to knock down shots. I think it’s also the determination of not going down 0-2 (that further motivated them),” said Black.