Barangay Ginebra intends to play harder and tougher Sunday as the Gin Kings expect the real Meralco team to resurface after it went missing in the series opener Friday night in Lucena.
Coach Tim Cone said it would take them a lot to be able to make it two in a row versus the Bolts at the resumption of their PBA Governors Cup best-of-seven championship series at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Tip off is at 6:30 p.m. after a brief ceremony announcing the winners of the Best Player of the Conference and the Best Import.
It could well be Ginebra's Greg Slaughter and Meralco's Allen Durham.
Ginebra overwhelmed Meralco on both ends of the floor and fashioned out a dominant 102-87 win in Game One at the Quezon Convention Center in Lucena.
Sponsored content:
Cone hopes his troops can step up harder, anticipating the Bolts to play with a lot of fire, energy and emotion in a bid to get even in Game Two.
"We played a very solid, if unspectacular, Game One, but we know we caught Meralco on a cold shooting night. We also know that how we played in Game One won't be good enough to beat them in Game Two," said Cone.
"There's a reason they dominated this conference and that has been their great and consistent play. We expect to see more of that (tonight)," Cone also said.
The Ginebra mentor plays down their Game One triumph, believing they just caught the Bolts on their off night.
"You take everything after Game One with a grain of salt. This is not representative of anything as the series goes on," Cone said.
Sponsored content:
"The key for us now is to be as fresh as we can. They're gonna have that emotion coming off a loss. We've got to find a way to battle that emotion," Cone added.
Meralco coach Norman Black offered no excuses on their Game One loss, saying: "We got outplayed."
Black says they need to be back on the drawing board as he noted his players deviating from their usual game.
"Uncharacteristically, we took so many three-point shots. I think we took about 35 when we only average 21 a game," said Black.
"We give them credit for the defense at the same time it was a bad shot selections on our part. Going to Game Two, we have to make sure we get good looks at the basket," Black added.
Meralco import Allen Durham rued they were lazy Friday.
"We didn't play our game. And you can't beat a team like Ginebra if you don't shoot the ball well," said Durham.
"We're just gonna try to make the necessary corrections and get ready forSunday," Durham added.
