Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone has nothing but praises for Stanley Pringle who gave the Kings a huge lift in the crucial Game 5 win over Bay Area on Sunday, Jan. 8.
Pringle came up clutch in the endgame, drilling back-to-back triples that shook off a resilient Dragons side to shove the Kings to the hill of another PBA title.
Cone admitted that Pringle was still far from his old deadly form but his presence inside the court, 100 percent or not, will always be a much-needed offensive boost for the Kings.
His recovery from a knee injury, however, was the only thing that hinders Pringle from fully getting his minutes on the floor.
“Well, he’s not 100 percent yet, as everyone can tell. He’s still working his way back, but his 90-percent is better than most guys in the league so we’re trying to monitor his minutes, we bring him off the bench,” explained Cone.
“We bring him off the bench so that we can monitor his minutes. That adds so much depth to our team — being able to bring a guy like Stanley out, and to relieve an LA (Tenorio) or a Scottie (Thompson), and we can go to him in big moments, like we did today. He just adds so much depth, even though he’s not 100 percent at this point” he added.
That was exactly the case in Game 5 as Pringle thrived in the final frame dropping 11 of his playoff-best 20 points while taking over Tenorio who hurt his groin late in the first half.
Cone felt like Bay Area didn’t see Pringle’s explosion coming especially that the guest team wasn’t really aware of his capabilities as he has been struggling to keep the consistent play with Ginebra.
“He’s definitely a weapon out there, and he’s a weapon that really, Bay Area has not seen, really. Because he hasn’t been playing heavy, heavy minutes,” Cone furthered.
“And, they don’t know the history of Stanley a year ago or two years ago or three years ago, and how dynamic he can be. So, he’s almost like a little secret weapon off the bench for us against Bay Area,” he added.
True enough, Dragons head coach Brian Goorjian asked his wards to focus on putting the clamps on Justin Brownlee in the waning minutes. Pringle made them pay with the two huge hits and convinced Goorjian that the shifty guard was Steve Kerr to Brownlee’s Michael Jordan in that Game 5 win.
“We didn't want Brownlee to beat us. He had 37 points so we doubled him and I thought we did a good job in rotating and their clutch kid from the corner. I didn't want Brownlee doing that, it's like Michael Jordan, I didn’t want to beat you but somebody else's gonna beat you, make that Steve Kerr and again he was another one,” Goorjian said of Pringle.
“That corner jump shot under pressure (and), he hit two that was really the difference.”