Cone braces for SMB comeback

Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone said yesterday winning Game 1 over San Miguel Beer in their PBA Governors Cup best-of-five semifinal series means “absolutely nothing” because if the Beermen take Game 2 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum tonight, it’s back to square one.

“I believe in the saying that yesterday ended last night,” said Cone. “San Miguel is a powerhouse team. They showed it in the first half of Game 1 when we were overwhelmed. The way they played and the way we played, it was like a pro team against a college team out there. I was surprised we were down by only 11 at the half. They were shooting the lights out, making threes, dumping the ball to JuneMar (Fajardo) whom we couldn’t stop. We had no answer to what they were doing.”

Cone said at halftime, he told his players to relearn how to compete, to trust in the system and battle back. Ginebra point guard L. A. Tenorio said Cone reminded the team to focus. “Nothing technical,” said Tenorio. “He told us if we don’t execute the way we should, we won’t survive the series. Basically, he wanted us to play our game, not theirs. There were still 12 minutes left on the clock before the second half when he finished. Usually, we go out with only five minutes left. So coach Tim didn’t speak long. He knew that we knew what to do.”

In the third period, Ginebra outscored San Miguel, 33-19, then raced to a 12-point lead, 92-80, in the fourth quarter before the Beermen trimmed the gap to three, 105-102. Ginebra held on to win, 115-108. Tenorio went 0-of-9 from the field and didn’t score. Japeth Aguilar netted 22 but was scoreless in the fourth period. In contrast, five Beermen scored in double figures with three hitting at least 20 apiece and as a team, they knocked down 16 triples. Still, Ginebra prevailed.

“We don’t rely on one man,” said Cone. “Anyone could step up in a game. It’s the way we’re designed. We’ve expanded beyond the triangle but we still believe in the equal opportunity philosophy of the triangle. L. A. doesn’t need to score for him to make an impact. He’s like our Johnny Abarrientos who would score only two points but was the best player of the game. When we beat Alaska in the quarters, L. A. shot 32 points. So San Miguel’s defense focused on him and that opened up opportunities for Joe (DeVance), Sol (Mercado), Japeth, Justin (Brownlee), Scottie (Thompson) and the others. In the next game, maybe San Miguel will focus on somebody else and L. A. will get the chance to score again. That’s how we do things. We fill the void.”

Cone said San Miguel looked worn out down the stretch. “Five of their players had 20 or more minutes in the first half so they were tired in the end,” he said. “That gave us a chance to come back. But in Game 2, you can be sure they’ll throw everything at us. They’re an awesome team. We’ve got to be ready.”

Tenorio said he’s not down for going scoreless in his first game this conference. “Coach Tim always tells me you can dominate a game even without scoring,” he said. “My job was to set the table, play defense and move the ball. The beauty of coach Tim’s system is it’s about team effort on both ends. Before, we used to rely on only one player to dominate, that was Greg (Slaughter). Now, everyone’s contributing. We’ll be even stronger when Greg comes back next season.”

Tenorio said what makes San Miguel a dangerous proposition is its championship experience. “They were down 0-3 in the last Philippine Cup finals and came back to win,” he said. “So for them, trailing 0-1 is nothing, even 0-2. The way I see it, our series is about their experience against our hunger. In the first quarter of Game 1, we really didn’t know what to do. They played so well. But we stuck to our system. They relied on a short rotation with only eight players while we went with our depth. In the end, we badly outscored them in bench points, 39-5.”

Cone said he expects a long series. He declined to comment about matchups, keeping his cards close to his chest, but said Chris Ellis may be able to play soon. “Chris has a torn hamstring and it’s healing with time and rehab,” he said. “He hasn’t gone back to practice but as soon as he does, we’ll use him in the playoffs. It’s now day-to-day with Chris.  We’re lucky Scottie and Aljon (Mariano) are playing well. Scottie’s been very consistent on defense, getting rebounds, scoring and passing. Aljon’s tough as nails, almost like Calvin Abueva. His toughness is what we need. Then, we’ve got Sol, Joe, Mark (Caguioa), Dave (Marcelo), Jervy (Cruz) and JayJay (Helterbrand) to back up Justin, Japeth and L. A. That’s why it’s difficult to defend us.”