Barangay Ginebra made sure there were no comeback attempts in Game 3 after a 116-102 win over TNT in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner's Cup at the Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday.
Justin Brownlee led the way with 41 points as the Kings clinched a 2-1 lead in their best-of-seven championships series in front of 18,607 fans.
Ginebra head coach Tim Cone stressed the importance of getting the lead in their title bout.
“In a finals game, I don’t think everybody realizes how difficult it is to get the early lead and keep that lead all the way through the game,” Cone said.
“It’s hard to do in a finals game so I got to tip my cap to our players…It was the third game in five days and we played five or six guys tonight in heavy minutes but they reached deep, knowing that this could be pivotal game in this series.”
Ginebra finished the first quarter with a 35-16 leand and never looked back.
A triple from Scottie Thompson with 2:41 left in the second quarter gave Ginebra its biggest lead of the game of 22 points, 57-35.
Stephen Holt caught fire for Ginebra as he scored 18 of his 23 points in the first quarter while Scottie Thompson had 17 points as he breached the 5000 points-mark in Game 3.
Chris McCullough led the Tropang 5G with 44 points and 11 rebounds in a losing effort, the most in the PBA finals since Allen Durham's 46 points for Meralco in Game 1 of the 2016 Governors' Cup title series.
Game 4 will be at the Smart Araneta Coliseum at 7:35 p.m. as the Best Player of the Conference and Best Import plums will be awarded before tip-off.