MANILA, Philippines — It hasn't been the ideal campaign for Ginebra San Miguel in the 2021 PBA Philippine Cup.
Though one of the powerhouse teams in the league, the Gin Kings found themselves fighting for dear life — not for a title but for a slot in the quarterfinals of the playoffs.
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Injury woes to the likes of Scottie Thompson and Japeth Aguilar have marred the efforts of the defending champions in getting any momentum going in the PBA's semi-bubble in Bacolor.
But while they didn't see themselves in this position prior to the season, Ginebra coach Tim Cone says his wards are just focused on moving forward.
"This isn't what we expected, we didn't expect to be in this kind of game coming into this," Cone said after beating the Phoenix Fuel Masters, 95-85, in a knockout game for the final slot in the playoffs.
"But you know, you have a choice you either keep going or you back off and our guys decided to keep going," he added.
Ginebra had a chance to determine their fate in the final game of eliminations when they faced the second-seeded Meralco Bolts.
But they couldn't seem to get any momentum going, losing to the Bolts in wire-to-wire fashion.
They needed to rely on Northport Batang Pier to beat the Alaska Aces to give them the life line and final gasp against the Fuel Masters.
Now, though, Cone's players have been able to rebound just in the nick of time.
Faced against twice-to-beat opponent TNT Tropang Giga in the first round though, the defending champions will need to dig even deeper.
The PBA's winningest coach can only hope that the momentum from their win on Saturday can help them go further in the postseason.
"Hopefully we're gonna take that attitude into our next game against Talk and Text," said Cone.
Cone and the Gin Kings will likely face TNT next week. No official schedule has been released yet.