Seesaw battle in higher gear

MANILA, Philippines — It’s been practically a seesaw battle in the explosive PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals so far with Barangay Ginebra and Bay Area taking turns winning the first four games.

Will this change when the tangled up protagonists dispute that critical third triumph in the race-to-four contest in today’s Game 5 at the MOA Arena?

For the Gin Kings, victors in Games 1 and 3, the objective is to keep the trend going, bounce back like before and get on the hill after bungling the job last Friday.

For the Games 2 and 4-winning Dragons, the aim is to break the pattern, beat the crowd darlings twice in a row and move to the doorstep of glory.

It will take another herculean effort from Brian Goorjian’s brave, young Dragons to pull this off, though, with import Andrew Nicholson still on “day-to-day” status and second import Myles Powell ruled out as replacement due to his own foot injury.

Nicholson sat out Game 4 due to a sprained ankle but the likes of Kobey Lam, Glen Yang, Zhu Songwei and Duncan Reid ably held the fort and stunned the full-bodied Gin Kings, 94-86, to force a 2-2 standoff.

“A long way to go. Winning a game means nothing. This is a series and you got to win four,” Goorjian said, refusing to get carried away by the “statement” triumph.

“But it keeps this thing interesting for everybody. There wouldn’t have been anything worse than being down 1-3 and beaten by 30 then going into the next one and the series is over. (Now) We’ve got something to come with and we have a responsibility to make it a great series.”

Ginebra counterpart Tim Cone’s fears about playing an import-less opponent came true in that Game 4 letdown.

“It was disappointing. We had a chance to really gain some traction on the series and put Bay Area on the brink. But you have to tip off your cap to them. Despite missing their import, they came into the game with great spirit and played with a great motor all game long,” he said.

“We’ve seen games like that before, when the import is out and you can catch a team sleeping. We have no excuses. Like we said at the beginning, this is going to be a tough series. Nothing ever comes easy in the Finals.”

Their night of career milestones dampened, Best Player of the Conference Scottie Thompson and Best Import Justin Brownlee are expected to lead a mighty counter-strike by Ginebra.