Gin Kings brace for TNT fighting stand in Game 6

DOWN but not out, TNT is committed to put up a big fight to stop Barangay Ginebra from delivering the kill shot and ascending to the PBA Commissioner’s Cup throne.

After leading, 2-1, the Tropang Giga dropped back-to-back games, 95-78 and 73-66, to find themselves in a do-or-die in Wednesday’s Game 6 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“I see us fighting like hell, fighting to win, fighting to play an excellent game, fighting to give maximum effort all 48 minutes, whether we go up or not, and just staying locked in (in Game 6),” Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (RHJ) said with strong conviction.

“(Coach) Chot (Reyes) said it to us — it’s about mental (toughness), like our mentality going into those crucial moments, turning (the ball) over, being wrong on a defensive play, allowing someone to jump up the screen,” he added.

RHJ and Co. went up by as many as 10 in the Game 5 tiebreaker last Sunday but coughed up only 11 in the third and 10 in the fourth, allowing Ginebra to steal the third W and go on the hill.

“Well, basketball is about scoring points, putting the ball in the basket and we couldn’t do it,” rued Mr. Reyes. whose troops missed several gimmes and open long shots in the stretch.

“We’re keeping them down to 75 points and we’re still losing games. They scored 71 in Game 2 and we lost. In Game 5, they scored 73 and we lost. We have no business winning if we can’t score more than 75.”

Ginebra, meanwhile, is ready to face TNT’s fighting stand head-on.

“We will come and try with all our might (to clinch it),” said Justin Brownlee, who isn’t letting a dislocated right thumb prevent him from helping the Gin Kings’ attempt to get back at their tormentors in their last two Governors’ Cup finals.

“TNT is a great team as the past has shown. They beat us two times in the finals so we know it’s not going to be easy. The hardest game in my opinion and in my experience is the closeout game,” he added.

Notes: After the Game 3 shoving and shouting incident with teammate Glen Khobuntin, Poy Erram got involved in another heated exchange on the TNT bench, this time with coach Chot Reyes. This happened in the third quarter of Game 5 at the height of Ginebra’s searing fightback. “Ah that’s just, I just got fed up with all the antics,” shared Mr. Reyes. “So I let him have a piece of my mind.” Like true pros, the two set aside the incident and went right back to work. — Olmin Leyba