Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone did not hide his frustrations after TNT ran over his team in Game 1 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup finals.
For the fourth straight meeting since the last two games of the season-opening Governors’ Cup championship, the Kings found themselves on the losing end of their rivalry.
“We didn’t play well,” Cone said after Ginebra suffered an 89-95 defeat last Friday to open the best-of-seven series at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“We have to understand this is gonna be a lot tougher series than it was in the last one.”
The Kings got burned toward the end of the first period after RR Pogoy drained three consecutive triples followed by three more treys from TNT in an 18-4 blitz that paved the way for the one-sided affair.
Just like in the Governors’ Cup title series, the Tropang Giga’s three-point shooting spelled the difference. TNT, which shot just 33 percent from the trifecta in the semifinals, connected 14-of-37 three-pointers in the opener compared to Ginebra’s 7-of-28.
It wasn’t just the Tropang Giga’s outside touch and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson’s 34-point explosion that gave Cone a terrible headache.
The 25-time PBA champion tactician felt TNT had them by their throat defensively.
“We got a little bit confused out there with their defense. They defended really well as usual. We got to step up our defense as well. We made way too many defensive mistakes,” Cone said.
The Tropang Giga’s defense forced the Kings to make difficult shot selections and kept them from getting good looks.
Ginebra shot 40.7 percent from the field and just 25 percent from the three-point area after a 43.1 percent efficiency nailing treys during the semifinals.
“It’s Game 1. It’s not what we wanted. We’ll deal with it and we’ll move forward,” Cone said.
“I’m getting kind of tired of saying we’re outplayed and outcoached. I’m getting tired of saying that. We gotta change the narrative,” he added.
Whether Ginebra will have the answer to snap a two-game skid against TNT in the mid-season tournament will be known on Sunday in Game 2 at the same venue.