Ginebra, TNT brace for heavy counterattack

Games today:

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)

5:15 p.m. — San Miguel vs Ginebra

7:30 p.m. — TNT vs Meralco

Drawing first blood isn’t easy.

Taking a 2-0 lead in a best-of-seven series is even harder.

Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone and Chot Reyes know that pressure lies heavier on them as they try to stave off counterattacks from their respective Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Philippine Cup semifinals foes today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“Well, you know, Game 2 is going to be a completely different game,” said Cone, who is sure defending champion San Miguel Beer has already made its adjustments to tie the series.

Game time is at 5:15 p.m. before the 7:30 p.m. clash between the Tropang 5G and Meralco.

Ginebra survived Beermen center June Mar Fajardo’s monster double-double and carved out a 99-90 victory last Sunday.

Cone expects San Miguel to come at them well-prepared and more aggressive on offense as well as defense.

“We have to play at the very top of our game to have a chance to beat them,” he said.

While the nine-time Most Valuable Player Fajardo, who had 27 points and 23 rebounds in Game 1, is already a given as a marked man, Cone is also wary of Don Trollano bouncing back.

Ginebra limited Trollano, who played with a sore back, to just five points on just 1-of-7 shooting.

“Don could have the big game. We know what Don’s capable of. He’s their third-leading scorer coming off the bench. So, you know, he leads that bench mob and is extremely, extremely valuable to them. So, you know, we do target him amongst everybody else,” Cone said.

San Miguel, which beat Ginebra in the semis last season in a grueling seven-game encounter, looks at its opening game loss as a spark rather than a defeat that snapped its 10-game romp.

“Game 2, it would be an exciting game for us,” Beermen head coach Leo Austria said.

“It’s a wake-up call for us and they (Beermen) know how difficult it would be if we fall 0-2.”

San Miguel will need its bench, which averaged a league-best 57.5 points per game, to step up after posting only 29 in Game 1. Fajardo, CJ Perez and Marcio Lassiter did all the heavy lifting on offense.

On the other hand, Reyes braces for a heavy return fire from the Bolts.

“They are chomping at the bit to get back at us,” he said.

Meralco is itching for payback after a humiliating 95-100 loss despite erecting a 21-point first-half lead.

“And you saw that with the kind of energy, execution. Even their three-point shooting in the first half. They were really primed for it. So, you know, we got a first-hand taste of that,” Reyes said about the series opener.

“So, hopefully in Game 2, we are more ready to play from the start. Because I don’t think we can bring this kind of game to Game 2 and expect to come up with the same result.  We have to definitely be better in Game 2.”

Irked not only by squandering a huge lead but by the glaring 47-19 discrepancy in the freethrow attempts favoring the Tropang 5G, Meralco mentor Luigi Trillo challenges his men to play better.

“I don’t think it’s gonna be an easy series but it’s far from over. There’s still a lot of basketball to be played and we need to be better,” Trillo said.