Christian Standhardinger may have held the fort pretty well in the absence of Justin Brownlee during the second half of the Barangay Ginebra’s 104-95 loss to TNT in Game 5 but the current Best Player of the Conference admitted that it remains tough to play without their resident import.

Christian Standhardinger admitted the struggles of the team without Justin Brownlee. (Noel Pabalete)

Brownlee exited Game 5 due to food poisoning and was immediately brought to the hospital after leaving the game in the third quarter of the contest.

“It was very tough. Very, very tough, I mean, we need him. I mean this is not a secret right? I think we did a great job of trying to stay in the game. You guys know, I truly believe that Brownlee is the GOAT (greatest of all time),” Standhardinger said of the absence of Brownlee.

“Even though we lost, now he has his flu game too, so, for sure the goat,” he added obviously in reference to Michael Jordan’s "Flu Game" in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz.

Everything was similar except that unlike Jordan and the Bulls, Brownlee couldn’t power through his condition and with the Kings eventually losing the game.

Still, Standhardinger is keeping his finger crossed that Brownlee can make it to Game 6 on Friday despite the quick turnaround from Wednesday’s loss.

“If he can [come] back in the next game that will help a lot.” Standhardinger said.

“It’s just tough without [Justin] Brownlee. So, it’s just trying to focus on his recovery. We need to recover and we need to give it [our] all, absolute all in the next game and hope that everything gets to victory and [we] get game 7” he added. (MARK MONTEJO, OJT)