Christian Standhardinger has been the engine that keeps Barangay Ginebra running against Meralco in the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup best-of-seven seminal series.

Kings coach Tim Cone said he is glad to see Standhardinger carry the team, knowing that he has been working hard in leading them back to the finals.

With the 6-foot-8 Standhardinger doing damage, the Kings booked an impressive 89-84 win over the Bolts in Game 5 that puts them a win away from facing sister team San Miguel Beer in the best-of-seven finals series.

The Filipino-German banger finished with 34 points on a sizzling 12-of-17 shooting from the field with 10 rebounds.

In five games in the semifinals, Standhardinger had been dominant as he averaged a whopping 22.8 points, 9.8 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game. He posted an impressive 41-point performance despite their 91-103 loss against the Bolts in Game 2 last 19 May.

Cone said he’s no longer surprised with Standhardinger’s quality performance.

‘Nothing is done yet, and this win doesn’t mean nothing yet.’

“He works on it all the time. He has faith in it, we have faith in it, and when guys are going to back off him like they do for the drive, he’s got to be able to take that shot and make it,” said Cone, whose wards can go for the kill on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“He did that at a really high percentage tonight. That’s just through really hard work that he does.”

Standhardinger, however, deflected the credit, saying that all he’s thinking of is to lead the Kings to another title.

“It has something to do with winning. Even in the last game, it doesn’t matter if I score 41 points if we are losing,” Standhardinger said.

“I know that there is gonna be a narrative about it, but then I failed to get my teammates involved. At this point in my career, the only thing that matters is winning in the playoffs. That’s it, nothing else.”

“Nothing is done yet, and this win doesn’t mean nothing yet.”