BARANGAY Ginebra guns for no less than the Finals spot when the league's crowd drawer clashes with Meralco in the crucial Game 6 of the PBA Philippine Cup semifinal series on Wednesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Gin Kings enter their 7:30 p.m. encounter with momentum after winning Games 4 and 5 en route to a 3-2 series lead.
A win allows Ginebra to advance to the best-of-seven title series where powerhouse San Miguel is waiting in the wings.
And should Ginebra succeed at finishing off Meralco, the Gin Kings will be making their third PBA Finals appearance in the last four conferences, and their first Philippine Cup Finals stint since winning the 2020 title during the bubble in Clark, Pampanga.
Christian Standhardinger will be leading the way once more for the Gin Kings after rediscovering his scoring touch last Sunday that saw him finish with 34 points, nine rebounds and five assists to lead his team to a come-from-behind 89-84 win.
"The leaders, Christian, LA (Tenorio), Scottie (Thompson), these guys were vocal during timeouts (in Game 5), and that just kind of revved everybody up and we started to get out into battle mode," Cone said, citing the important roles of his three veteran stars that led to the Game 5 victory.
He also noted that the Ginebra crowd played a big role, too, because of the energy they provided during their searing run in the fourth quarter.
"Once we did, our crowd got into it and that puts a lot of pressure on them," he said, adding: "We really gotta give a lot of credit to our sixth man tonight. We haven't had that (crowd getting involved) really throughout the series."
The Bolts will have to immediately put away that painful loss in Game 5 and focus back on their adjustments for Wednesday.
And that will have to start by making sure Standhardinger doesn't get his usual touches, nor let Thompson get everybody involved through his passes.
Chris Banchero, Allein Maliksi and Chris Newsome, Meralco's veteran stars are expected to lay everything on the line in an effort to lead the Bolts to a victory and force Game 7.
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