Kings to play without Slaughter in playoffs

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BY ADRIAN STEWART CO
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Sunday, March 4, 2018
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MANILA – Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings center Gregory Slaughter will miss their PBA Philippine Cup best-of-three quarterfinals series against Rain or Shine Elasto Painters starting Monday due to an ankle injury.

He sprained his ankle during training on Thursday and will likely take a week to recover, the former PBA Rookie of the Year awardee told reporters on Friday evening.

“Sprains like this last a few weeks but I’m trying to do everything I can to get back in the quarterfinals,” Slaughter said.

“I sprained my ankle during the practice in literally the last rep of the drill,” added the former Ateneo Blue Eagles center. “I’m just going to do my part and try to rejoin the team as soon as I can.”

The 7-foot Slaughter has been hobbled by knee injuries the past few years. Just before the start of the conference, the Cebuano big man sat out a number of games due to hamstring injury.

But the absence of Slaughter was hardly felt when Kings cruised to a 100-92 triple-overtime win over Painters on Friday, with his frontline partner Japeth Aguilar doing the damage with 30 points and 17 rebounds.

The victory was huge for Kings, which avoided falling to a knockout game for the eighth and final quarterfinals seat. The Tim Cone-mentored team instead finished the eliminations at No. 4.

“I’m relieved that we won this one,” Slaughter said. “We had a lot on the line with this game so we showed a lot of character. We pulled out that win and we’re going to play the same team on Monday.”/PN
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