MANILA – Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings coach Tim Cone dropped an 18-word, two-sentence statement before walking out on the press after their loss to San Miguel Beermen on Wednesday night.
“I have nothing to say other than I am embarrassed by our performance,” said the 20-time PBA champion coach. “They’re too good for us.”
Kings suffered a 94-132 defeat to Beermen in Game 3 of their 2018 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Final series at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Ginebra’s 38-point loss equaled the most lopsided loss in PBA Finals history – which, ironically, Cone’s Alaska Aces caused Beermen in 1996 – according to PBA chief statistician Fidel Mangonon III.
It was also the first time in PBA Finals history that a team lost back-to-back games in lopsided fashion.
Kings also suffered a 109-134 loss to Beermen in Game 2 after dealing the defending champion a 127-99 beat-down in Game 1.
While Cone slowly loses hope, Kings import Justin Brownlee remains hopeful that they can repeat their feat in the 2015 Governor’s Cup Finals against Meralco Bolts where they bounced back from a 1-2 deficit to win the title in three straight games.
“It’s only one game. Hopefully, we can bounce back from this game and we’ll be better,” said Brownlee. “You gotta give a lot of credit to San Miguel. They came out and played tough, hard, and they were really focused.”
“They were very sharp. They came out shooting the ball well, executing and defending,” added Brownlee, the frontrunner for the Commissioner’s Cup Best Import award./PN
