WHILE waiting for his offensive game to pick up and finally click, Barangay Ginebra's Justin Brownlee is making sure to crank it up defensively.
Brownlee's scoring and three-point shooting clip have reached low points in the PBA Governors' Cup finals against TNT but he made up for it with four blocks and a steal in their breakthrough 85-73 victory in Friday's Game 3.
The Ginebra resident import feels defense will be the deciding factor in this showdown.
"It's the finals and I think that's where it's going to be won - on the defensive end," Brownlee said after the crowd darlings held the Tropang Giga to their second lowest output of the conference en route to the All-Saints' Day win.
"At least that's what 's been proven to be the past three games. TNT has been playing incredible defense, even in their Game 3 loss. We're gonna have to either match them or be better. We definitely emphasized defense in Game 3 and we did a great job all around the board so I think that's where it's going to be at, on the defensive end."
Sponsored content: Brownlee manages an average of 20 points marred by a meager 11.11 percent from deep against TNT counterpart Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, whom Ginebra coach Tim Cone described as an "elite defender."
"Yeah, Justin's struggling offensively but he's not quitting defensively," said Cone.
"If you're going to have Rondae Hollis-Jefferson guarding you for 35 minutes of the game, you're going to struggle. I remember talking to Eric Spoelstra and telling him that Rondae was here and he goes 'wow that guy's an elite defender," he added.
"Even Paul George or something like that, they're probably going to struggle against Rondae also. So in Game 3, we didn't spend that much time really trying to set Justin up. We just let him get the ball in the flow and let the other guys play and that was a little better for us. But we still expect Justin to have one of his explosive games this series. But in the meantime, he's helping us with block shots, with the defensive rotations. He's picking up Rondae at certain times of the game and those are just as valuable as him hitting those three or four-point shots." (OL)
