THE rigors of playing a hectic schedule seem to have finally caught up with San Miguel Beer in this critical juncture of the PBA Governors' Cup.
Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone is not one to commiserate with its visibly fatigued opponent going to Game 2 of their semifinals duel Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
"It's really hard for them at this point to prepare and practice because they are tired and exhausted," said Cone of the Beermen, who had to play seven games in two weeks.
"Honestly, we're not gonna feel sorry for 'em. It's not our job to feel sorry for 'em," stressed Cone. "We're gonna take advantage of every little thing that we can and if they're gonna be tired we'd try and take advantage of that."
A well-rested and hot-shooting Ginebra pulled off a cruising 122-105 win last Wednesday to take a resounding head start in the best-of-seven affair.
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How to do a fitting follow-up is an entirely different matter for Cone, wary as he is that doing a big rebound following a loss is part of the SMB lore.
"I'm sure they're gonna be ready to beat us in Game 2. I mean, that's just the way when two really good teams battle each other. No one dominates for any length of time," offered Cone, harking back to the 49-point drubbing SMB dealt his team during the group stages.
"They dominated us in one game and we half-dominated them tonight. At this point, it's their turn (to win in Game 2)," added Cone. "Hopefully, we can do something to prevent that."
How his team can recover and refresh from its past schedule, that saw it get stretched by Converge to five games in their quarterfinals series and also kick off its EASL campaign, is basically SMB coach Jorge Gallent's main concern.
With only two days to prepare for the start of the semis, the Beermen initially managed to keep in step with the Kings. But only in the first half.
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As soon as Justin Brownlee started booming in the last three of his total five 4-pointers and the likes of Stephen Holt, RJ Abarrientos and Scotty Thompson chipped in on the offensive end, Ginebra was well on its way to the lopsided win.
Import AJ Anosike had 27 points to lead SMB but only scored a total of four in the two middle periods, while June Mar Fajardo had 16 points, 16 boards and seven dimes but managed to put up only nine attempts from the field while going 5-of-10 from the stripes.
"June Mar is not gonna be guarded by just one guy. It's a whole team... truly a team effort," Cone pointed out. "Good news was, they weren't hitting their shots like they always do and so we took advantage of that a little bit, defensively." (NC)
