Ginebra out to pin SMB down

ROMEO in recent action. contributed photo

Crowd darling Barangay Ginebra seeks to drag four-time champion San Miguel Beer even deeper down the cellar when they collide in a gigantic Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup battle today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Action kicks off at 6:45 pm with the opening game winner Kings (1-0) eyeing the solo lead by keeping the five-peat winner Beermen (0-1) winless in their All Filipino conference title retention bid.

Prior to that, the rejigged NLEX (0-1) squad looks to bounce back against the vastly-improved Northport (1-0) in the first game at 4:30 pm.

The sister teams opened their campaigns on opposite notes with Ginebra scoring an easy 90-79 win over Talk ‘N Text last Sunday while SMB is coming off a massive upset at the hands of Columbian, 118-124, two days ago.

That Beermen loss came after tweaking their line-up in the post-season.

“If you’re gonna get them, now is the time to get them when they’re still trying to figure themselves out,” Ginebra coach Tim Cone said.

The once mighty Beermen looked puzzled and tentative in their debut game as they had difficulty shrugging off the pesky Columbian early in the game that led to the close loss.

SMB paraded the same core in the past four years of its Philippine Cup reign before adding three-time scoring champion Terrence Romeo in their five-peat bid this year.

Last year’s top overall pick Christian Standhardinger also played his first Philippine Cup game after seeing action only in the Commissioner’s Cup and the Governors’ Cup in the 2018 season.

“If there is a weakness, there’s probably going to be a little bit of unfamiliarity,” Cone said of San Miguel. “You’re gonna see this unfamiliarity now but you’re not gonna see it later so if you’re gonna play them, play them now.”

Cone has Ginebra’s intact core and chemistry to bank on. The team signed just one rookie in Teytey Teodoro.

“We’re intact, we’re comfortable with each other. We know what we want to do,” Cone said.

Leading the charge for Ginebra are twin towers Greg Slaughter and Japeth Aguilar together with Joe Devance, LA Tenorio and Scottie Thompson.

Standing on their way are five-time Most Valuable Player June Mar Fajardo, Arwind Santos, Alex Cabagnot, Marcio Lassiter and Chris Ross.

Romeo, however, is questionable in this game due to a sprained ankle injury he suffered in his Beermen debut.