Tropang Giga brace for Kings’ outside shooting as they seek to double series lead Trending Global News

It’s a credit to how Barangay Ginebra has turned the three-point shot into a weapon that TNT coach Chot Reyes warned his team about how the Gin Kings’ poor shooting nights are the exception and not the rule.

“They are an outdoor shooting team. So they really rely on their three-point shooting a lot,” Reyes said. “There will be days when they’re off, but it’s not going to be every day and that’s why I said [the players] We have to be ready for the next game.”

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Barangay Ginebra’s 2-for-21 shooting from three-point land in Game 1 was its worst in a series finale in over a decade. The last time a club fared poorly in San Mig Coffee was during the 2014 Commissioner’s Cup final, at a time when hot shooting from outside was often dismissed as a rarity.

Interestingly, that San Mig team was also coached by Tim Cone, who had led that team to that conference title – the team’s second on the way to a rare Triple Crown sweep.

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Tropang Giga, the defending champions of this conference, will be trying to weave the same defensive magic that stifled the top guns of their arch-foes when the return match begins at 7:30 pm at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.

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The Gin Kings, for their part, already looked poised to rebound after a 104-88 defeat in front of a record crowd of 11,021 at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City on Sunday night. RJ Abarrientos, one of Ginebra’s starters who struggled in the loss, hardly looked disappointed by the series-opening loss.

“We feel like our intensity is still there [intact] To the next game,” said the flamboyant rookie, who scored just five points in the loss.

“We just came out. Not just me, but the rest of the team.” “It’s just basketball. There will be a loser and there will be a winner.”

Justin Brownlee, one of the biggest highlights of this best-of-seven performance, was equally adamant, saying this is what Cone had warned Ginebra about.

“It’s not going to be easy and Coach Tim explained that to us. We have been preparing since last week. he told us [we won’t be getting] The same … shots that we’re probably used to taking,” he said.

“We just have to work a little harder [for them]Is complete. You also have to give them credit for their protection,” said resident Ginebra Ayat. “I think we’re just missing some good looks in our mix. But also, if I’m not mistaken, the stats say that TNT is the top defensive team in three-pointers. So there is no mystery why we had to struggle.”

And Cone, having appeared at rodeos like this several times in the past, was expectedly quiet.

“We weren’t tied to each other throughout the game. They beat us one-on-one and…really embarrassed our defense. We’ll see what we can do about it,” he said. inquiry