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Manila Bulletin devider Sports devider Basketball devider Nothing comes easy in the playoffs

Nothing comes easy in the playoffs

Published Sep 28, 2024 04:05 am

At A Glance

  • While it feels good to win the first game in any kind of series, teams are not the type to dwell in such fleeting sense of success as tables can easily turn in a high-level competition like in the PBA Season 49 Governors' Cup playoffs.

While it feels good to win the first game in any kind of series, teams are not the type to dwell in such fleeting sense of success as tables can easily turn in a high-level competition like in the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup playoffs.

PBA Images9 (67).jpg
Meralco's Raymond Almazan and Ginebra's Scottie Thompson battle for the rebound (PBA Images)


 

And that is something coaches and players, who came out victorious in Game 1 of the best-of-five quarterfinals series, are trying to instill and remind to their respective teams as the series progresses.

Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone, as many times he coached in the playoffs in his multi-titled career, knew full well how a significant lead could easily vanish in front of a formidable foe.

And he did not have to go far back in time to be reminded how fragile a lead can be in the playoffs.

“They beat us in seven games. I think we had a 3-2 lead  in the semis last conference and they beat us two straight in Games 6 and 7,” said Cone as the Kings took a 1-0 quarters lead over the Meralco Bolts.

“Obviously, we hoped we got to learn from that and know that any kind of lead that we have in a series is not gonna matter much, and any kind of lead in a game is not gonna matter much,” he added.

Game 2 of the series between the Kings and the Bolts is set on Saturday, Sept. 28 at 7:30 p.m. at the Smart Araneta Coliseum with the clash between the San Miguel Beermen and Converge FiberXers raising the curtain at the 5:00 p.m.

Like what Cone was pointing out, the Game 1 between SMB and Converge was also a perfect example on how teams cannot be complacent even with the sizable lead.

Taking a 16-point advantage with more three minutes left in the game, SMB looked poised to be on its way to the victory but not until Converge rallied back and even threatened to steal the game away.

SMB head coach Jorge Gallent reminded the veteran team that it should not take Converge for granted and display the poise and composure for the entire 48 minutes of the game.

“It was just the composure we just wanted to close the game really quick but we should have just held the ball a bit longer but we made quite a few mistakes coming into the end,” Gallent said as SMB sputtered a 97-81 lead.

“We just have to have composure, especially coming into the end game,” he added.

Related Tags

Barangay Ginebra PBA Governors Cup TNT KaTropa
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