Ginebra seeks commanding lead

MANILA, Philippines — Back-to-back or back-and-forth?

For Barangay Ginebra, the objective is to make it two in a row and tighten the noose on TNT today in Game 4 of the PBA Governors’ Cup finals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

But the Tropang Giga is out to do everything to stop this and instead keep the “alternating” trend seen in the first three games so far and force the defending champions to another deadlock in the race-to-four contest.

“Obviously, you can’t rest in a series like this,” said Ginebra coach Tim Cone ahead of their bid for a commanding 3-1 lead in the 6 p.m. dogfight.

“They’re in the finals for a reason so it’s really hard to get back-to-back against a really good team,” he added.

Cone, whose charges seized a 2-1 lead with a 117-93 Game 3 romp Friday night, braces for a fierce fightback just like in the second game where Jojo Lastimosa’s Tropang Giga retaliated with the 95-82 equalizer after Ginebra’s opening 102-90 win.

“Jojo has been doing all the right things, saying all the right things. They made some really good adjustments in Game 2 that caught us off-guard so we have to readjust. They’re going to come in and do the same thing in Game 4,” he said.

TNT’s Game 2 tinkering had a lot to do with Rondae Hollis-Jefferson taking on Justin Brownlee and stifling the resident Ginebra import to a 3-of-16 clip.

It was Ginebra’s turn to surprise TNT in the third game with Stanley Pringle starting.  The Fil-Am guard caught fire and had a sizzling 6-of-6 three-point shooting to lead the team to a new franchise-high 18 triples (out of 32 attempts). The Tropang Giga had seven less treys made at 11 out of their 29 tries.

“That’s the story (so far). Kung sino’ng nanalo sa three-point shooting percentage ‘yun ang nanalo sa game,” noted Lastimosa, whose troops won Game 2 with a torrid 15-of-35 accuracy from deep versus Ginebra’s 7-of-29.

“Credit to Tim for putting Stanley in the starting lineup. It got him going early and he didn’t let up, he didn’t miss the whole game. That was key. They adjusted so well. They felt like they needed to score more and they did. As for us, we also scored well, but they scored better,” said Lastimosa.

His charges expressed readiness to fight.

“Kailangang gawin namin yung ginawa noong Game 2. We have to keep the motto going. Hindi kami dapat huminto,” said Poy Erram.