Whether Barangay Ginebra wins the championship or not, the Kings will live and die with resident import Justin Brownlee.
As much as Ginebra coach Tim Cone would like to keep his team’s offensive option spread among his wards, he has no other recourse but to let Brownlee do his thing against defending champion TNT.
The four-time Best Import is carrying much of the Kings’ scoring weight in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup finals.
In fact, his 54-point explosion in Game 5 pushed Ginebra on the brink of quenching a three-year title drought.
“The way they’re defending us, they’re putting the pressure on Justin to win games by himself,” Cone said.
“They’re putting a guy on him that that Justin knows he can attack and then they’re denying out on everybody else. So, they’re really forcing Justin to go one-on-one and do his thing and we really have no recourse but to allow it to happen.”
And the 25-time champion tactician knows he has no other choice.
“Otherwise, we’re not going to get anything done. So, you know, it’s just really the way they’re defending.”
Even at the age 38, the naturalized player has been logging an average of over 44 minutes of action in the best-of-seven series that, if Ginebra failed to close out last night, will be dragged into a winner-take-all on Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Game 6 of the title rematch is still being played as of press time.
“Oh, man. I think everybody’s tired right now, you know, but at this point, you know, both teams can’t use that as an excuse. This is how the playoffs have always been,” Brownlee said.
“You know, even when I was, you know, in my 20s, everybody gets tired at this point, but, you know, you just got to keep a bigger picture in mind,” added the second all-time multiple Best Import winner behind legendary reinforcement Bobby Parks’ seven.