Justin Brownlee is ready to play without rest if that will help Barangay Ginebra overcome TNT Tropang Giga in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup best-of-seven finals series.
Brownlee said he is very much willing to work doubly hard so they can duplicate their 71-70 victory over the Tropang Giga in Game 2 last Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The naturalized Filipino played all but three minutes of Game 2 in which he dropped 35 points and 11 rebounds to help the Kings reduce the series into a best-of-five encounter. Game 3 will be on Wednesday at the Philsports Arena in Pasig City.
“Fatigue is just something I’m trying not to worry about and if I’m tired, I just have to push through it just like everybody else on the team,” Brownlee said.
“So, I think at this point, when you reach the finals, everybody gets a little fatigued and maybe has some aches and pains but, you know, you can’t really think about those things.”
Concerns on Brownlee’s health were raised after reports surfaced that he was being treated for asthma days before the start of the finals series.
But the 36-year-old Brownlee simply brushed it off as he is used to playing crucial roles not just for the Kings, but for the national squad — Gilas Pilipinas — as well.
Ginebra head coach Tim Cone, however, assured that the health and conditioning of their reinforcement remain their top priority as they enter the crucial stretch of the championship series.
“He’s been battling asthma and sickness all this whole week and so we’re just trying to keep him healthy so he can do what he did tonight,” said Cone, who won six of his 25 PBA titles with Brownlee.
“Justin was really moving so we just kept feeding him and feeding him. It’s like, you know, we fed the beast because he just had that kind of presence about tonight.”
Cone said he can’t always rely on Brownlee and is up to his locals like Scottie Thompson and Japeth Aguilar, who had 16 and eight points, respectively, to carry the load.
“We ran almost all of our offense through him because he was feeling it. We can’t do that every night,” Cone said.