Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone is not worried about prized rookie RJ Abarrientos’ cold shooting night to start the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup best-of-seven semifinals series.
Abarrientos had a terrible 1-of-12 shooting from the field in the Kings’ thrilling come-from-behind 73-71 win over top-seeded San Miguel Beer to draw first blood Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
The top Rookie of the Year contender was limited to just two points in almost 26 minutes of action on a low-scoring ball game, which saw Ginebra overcome an 18-point second quarter deficit.
“I don’t think you’ll see another game like that the rest of the series for RJ,” Cone said of the third overall pick in the last Draft.
The decorated mentor remains confident that Abarrientos will rediscover his shooting form and play a vital role in the series to help Ginebra advance to a third straight finals appearance.
“He’s going to be a huge part of our offense. That was kind of our missing link tonight, was RJ not hitting open shots,” Cone said.
Abarrientos was not in his usual dead-shot self as he hit 1-of-5 two-point field goal and threw bricks from the three-point area in six attempts and even missed his lone four-pointer.
The Ginebra guard averaged 14.6 points during the elimination round and was coming off a 21-point quarterfinal explosion against Converge last Friday.
“We begged RJ to shoot. Tonight, he had a really tough shooting night. And he’s getting better at being aggressive and looking for shots. But he had a tough shooting night tonight,” Cone said.
Despite his shooting struggle, Abarrientos compensated his scoring woes by creating scoring opportunities for his teammates with seven assists while bringing down five rebounds.
Aside from Abarrientos, Stephen Holt also had a sour sniping with 1-of-6 shooting but still managed to make his lone field goal count.
He hit the go-ahead trey with 2:04 remaining for a 70-69 advantage before sealing the win with a split from the foul line with just a second left.