All roads lead to Bocaue

The PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals will come to a climactic finish in Game 7 between Barangay Ginebra and foreign guest team Bay Area of Greater China before an expected sell-out crowd at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan, tonight. The anticipation is over 50,000 fans will jam the venue to witness what looms to be a colossal battle. Only three playdates have breached the 50,000 mark in PBA history – 52,612 for the opening doubleheader of the 2014-15 Philippine Cup; 53,642 in Game 6 of the 2017 Governors’ Cup Finals and 54,086 in Game 7 of the same Finals.

Only one Game 7 of a Finals has been staged at the Philippine Arena. That was when Ginebra clinched the 2017 Governors’ Cup title with a 101-96 win over Meralco. LA Tenorio took his third Finals MVP trophy. In 2020, he collected his fourth Finals MVP award in the Philippine Cup Finals. If Tenorio earns his fifth Finals MVP honor, he will set a new PBA record, breaking a tie with June Mar Fajardo, James Yap and Danny Seigle who own four. Tenorio, 38, hasn’t missed a game since entering the league in 2006 and will extend his record of 737 consecutive contests with an appearance tonight.

Ginebra has been in every PBA playdate at the Philippine Arena and will mark its eighth game in the venue. Bay Area held practice in Bocaue yesterday “to get used to the size of the arena,” in Hayden Blankley’s words. The Dragons are soaking in the Finals experience and it’s coach Brian Goorjian’s job to make sure they’re not overwhelmed by the moment. Game 5 brought in 21,823 fans at the MOA Arena and Game 6 drew 22,361 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. Audience has been at an upward trajectory since Game 3.

Ginebra coach Tim Cone’s focus will be defense which has been his trademark. In three Finals wins, Ginebra held Bay Area to an average of 84.7 points. But in three losses, Ginebra gave up an average of 93.3 or a difference of 8.6, a significant figure considering three of the six games had a winning margin of eight or less. In Bay Area’s three wins, the Dragons held Ginebra to less than 40 percent field goal shooting – 38.4 in Game 2, 38.8 in Game 4 and 37.5 in Game 6 – so Goorjian’s squad is geared towards defense, too. “Rebounding and defense will win us Game 7,” said Blankley. “They crash the boards hard and attack the paint hard. We want to continue to focus in on (Justin) Brownlee and see what type of position that puts us in to finish the game.” Ginebra has won the odd contests in the series and Bay Area, the even. Neither team has lost two in a row the entire conference.

For Bay Area, the keys to win are ball security (limit turnovers to preserve possessions), extra pass off picks (to disengage Ginebra’s defense and open clear looks for shooters), foul control (avoid early penalty and foul trouble to key players), small lineup for pace (maximize Kobey Lam alongside Glen Yang and Myles Powell) and balanced attack. For Ginebra, the keys to win are unpredictable offense (constant ball movement to locate open man, whoever he is), collective rebounding (team effort to block out), constrict space (tight closeouts and congest interior), local firepower support (not totally reliant on Brownlee) and backcourt pressure (to force turnovers and limit guards’ production). Both teams fought tooth and nail to get to Game 7 and deserve credit for their efforts but there can only be one champion.