'Frustrated' Balkman eager to bounce back from Beermen's one-sided Game 1 loss

MANILA, Philippines — Coach Leo Austria found San Miguel Beer’s Game One loss to Barangay Ginebra on Friday “humiliating.”

Renaldo Balkman, whose team-best 27 points was put to naught, said it was “frustrating.”

The Beermen — who many regard as the “crown” favorite as opposed to Barangay Ginebra’s tag as “crowd” favorite — absorbed a 29-point drubbing to kick off the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals. 

But then again, both the mentor and the import were in cadence in saying it’s too early to concede. Obviously, it’s still game one. And for Balkman, it’s hard to clamp down on a cager who was firing on all cylinders.

“It’s a looooong Finals,” Balkman told the press candidly.

“It’s hard to stop a player who’s not missing shots,” the Puerto Rican reinforcement continued. “[He] had a great game,” added Balkman, referring to his counterpart Justin Brownlee

Brownlee poured 44 points in just 19 shots to torch the offensively deep Beermen at the Big Dome. If it was any indicator that the former was having a night, he already had 18 points in the first period.

Balkman also offered that no one should shoulder the blame for the team’s forgettable outing.

“There’s no player to blame. We just gotta go out and play harder. We got a Game Two on Sunday,” he explained. “We win as a team, we lose as a team.” 

“It’s very frustrating,” he admitted. “But guess what, that’s why we are in the playoffs. That’s why it’s Game One.”

“But the good thing about this is it’s Game 1—we’re down 0-1,” he added. “It’s not like (we’re) down 0-3.”