For all the marbles
Just like the way they did a couple of nights back, Justin Brownlee and Chris McCullough are expected to come out with their A-Games on Wednesday with the PBA Commissioner’s Cup title on the line and no tomorrow left for the loser.
And who among the locals will step up or disappear for either Barangay Ginebra or TNT will be the biggest question begging for an answer going into Game 7 of what has been a very unpredictable series at Mall of Asia (MOA) Arena.
For Ginebra, coach Tim Cone believes the offensive struggles of RJ Abarrientos and former MVP Scottie Thompson are something they need to shake off in the most important battle of the conference set at 7:30 p.m.
“You’re not going to see that very often,” Cone said after Abarrientos and Thompson combined for only nine points on 2-of-18 shooting in Game 6 when the Gin Kings fell short in their first crack at the crown last Sunday.
Both teams were put into this winner-take-all scenario after TNT pulled out a 98-90 victory behind 53 points from McCullough.
That win actually set the Tropang 5G up to post a repeat of what happened last season, when TNT also came back from 3-2 in the series to win bannered by the workhorse Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.
Justin Brownlee fired 52 for Ginebra, but that lack of support—not only from Abarrientos and Thompson, but the others as well—on the offensive side, doomed Cone’s squad.
Troy Rosario was Ginebra’s second-best scorer on Sunday night with nine points. He also had 15 rebounds. But despite that, the Gin Kings were in a good position to close that one out.
Liking his chances
Which makes Cone like his chances ahead of the contest that is expected to draw a crowd bigger than the 22,371 fans—if that would fit inside MOA Arena—that trooped to Smart Araneta Coliseum over the weekend.
“We’re going to feel good about ourselves going into Game 7,” Cone said. “We know we can take this and we’re going to go for it.”
TNT had the better local production last time, albeit just by a slight margin, with Jordan Heading and RR Pogoy, who is Abarrientos’ counterpart as TNT’s main contender for the PBA Press Corps Finals Most Valuable Player and the Ramon Fernandez Trophy.
But the Tropang 5G are pinning their hopes that Calvin Oftana, Jayson Castro and Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser can be available for Game 7 amid their injuries.
“Like I said before, it’s going to be a battle of attrition,” said TNT coach Chot Reyes. “All we want is to continue to just go down and just go out and fight. Fight for everything, fight for every possession.
“And as long as we give our best, whatever happens, happens,” he added.
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