MANILA, Philippines — TNT has already taken care of business and marched into the finals. Now the onus is on Barangay Ginebra to get its job done against San Miguel Beer if it wants a rematch with its tormentor in the PBA Governors’ Cup finals in 2023.
With a 3-2 lead, the Gin Kings have a max of two shots at following the title-holders Tropang Giga to the finale but naturally, Justin Brownlee and Co. prefer to collar the clincher straightaway in tonight’s Game 6 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
While TNT dominated semifinal rival Rain or Shine in five matches, it’s been nip-and-tuck for Ginebra against SMB. The sister teams but fierce rivals have alternated victories in their race-to-four dispute with the Gin Kings taking Games 1, 3 and 5.
No team has won two-in-a-row and if Tim Cone and the crowd darlings will be the first to pull this off in the 7:30 p.m. tussle, then it’s off to the best-of-seven finals beginning on Oct. 27.
“If there are two teams that are fairly equal, you’re going to have a series like this. If you have one team that’s obviously more talented than the other team, then you might get back-to-back wins or whatever. If you notice a lot of times in a Game 7, it’s usually the team that wins back-to-back is the one that wins the series,” said Cone.
“We haven’t won back to back yet and it’s now flipping toward them…We’re going to try to stop the pattern and see if we can come out and win Game 6. But it’s hard against a really good team like San Miguel. We expended so much energy to win tonight (Game 5). It’s hard to have that same energy coming into the next game.”
To succeed in this closeout, Cone said the troops led by Brownlee, Scottie Thompson, Japeth Aguilar, Stephen Holt and Joe DeVance must come up with a “special game” like they did in their masterful 121-92 romp last Friday.
“Our 31:6 assist-turnover ratio is really, really good. It’s not something you’re going to do every night and tonight we were able to do it,” he said.
The pride of a champion team is expected to light more fire on June Mar Fajardo, CJ Perez, Marcio Lassiter and import EJ Anosike as they fight for dear life.
Meantime, early finalist TNT will be an interested spectator in this battle to the death that has the potential to go the full route.
“They’re both talented teams but we only can face one so we’re going to wait to see which one it is,” said TNT reinforcement Rondae Hollis-Jefferson after leading the Tropang Giga to a 113-95 Game 5 clincher against Rain or Shine Friday night.