FRESH off a confidence-building win on All Saints' Day, Barangay Ginebra now guns for another to send the series back to square one in Game 4 of their PBA Season 49 Governors' Cup Finals on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Game time is at 7:30 p.m. with Ginebra riding from its 85-73 triumph over TNT in Game 3 last Friday.
Before the Game 4 tip-off, the PBA will be holding its awarding ceremonies for the Best Player of the Conference (BPC) and Best Import.
San Miguel Beer star center June Mar Fajardo leads the BPC stats race, while TNT's do-it-all reinforcement Rondae Hollis-Jefferson is a cinch to capture his second Best Import plum.
Meanwhile, at halftime break, the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters will showcase their acts as part of its iconic global tour that includes performing in other Southeast Asian countries like Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
Ginebra coach Tim Cone said defensively, the Gin Kings were able to produce the desired result after holding the Tropang Giga to just 73 points.
"We certainly played a lot better, especially on defense," said Cone, whose team held the Tropang Giga to just 32.6 percent shooting (28-of-86), in contrast to the Gin Kings' 50 percent shooting clip (33-of-66).
Cone admitted that Ginebra was coming off a grueling semifinal series against San Miguel Beer, and he felt the players expended a lot of their energy on the way to beating the Beermen.
"Coming from that San Miguel series, we were a little bit worried, and we feel we're not as focused as we should be," the PBA's all-time winningest coach added.
"Hopefully, this [Game 3 win] wakes us up going to this series. This won't mean much if we don't get one on Sunday."
Resident import Justin Brownlee is averaging over 44 minutes per game in the series, while star playmaker Scottie Thompson over 36 minutes. Veterans Maverick Ahanmisi and Japeth Aguilar logged 32 and 31 minutes, respectively, as well during the first three games of the title series, which for Cone, can be a cause for concern.
"It's tough when you're in the Finals playing Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. It's a real grind for the players," he said. "Just apologizing for Scottie because he's been playing with Justin and Japeth for so many minutes. "It's just like they're a wet towel, drenching out all the water and getting real dry there, not much water left in that rag. But we'll just see what we can do on Sunday.
Over at TNT, Hollis-Jefferson played a near no-relief job of 47 minutes per contest in the Finals, while still being able to deliver 26.67 points, 12.33 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.67 blocks
TNT is still up, 2-1, and is expected to do everything it can to counter Ginebra's own attack come Game 4 in an effort to secure an all-import third win in the title series.
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