MANILA – Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings’ Justin Brownlee knew their title defense in the 2018 PBA Governors’ Cup will not be easy despite them topping the rankings at the end of the elimination round.
Speaking to the press after the Kings’ 112-93 win over TNT KaTropa on Sunday, Brownlee said other teams were preparing hard to unseat them from their two-year reign.
“I’m not sure how different it will be. I just know that I’m sure it’s going to be tough – even tougher than the previous two,” said the one-time PBA Best Import of the Conference awardee.
“The advantage the teams may have is that they’ve seen this team more. Even though I think we’ve gone better, teams definitely know what we’re gonna do. Personally, they know each guy’s strengths and weaknesses,” he added.
The Kings will begin their move for a third straight Governors’ Cup title when they battle the NLEX Road Warriors at the start of the quarterfinal round Tuesday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Being the top seed, the Kings were granted a twice-to-beat advantage in the playoffs against the No. 8 seed – the Road Warriors.
“You come in No. 1, you may get a little bit complacent, a little less hungry, teams will be hunting you for sure,” Brownlee said, echoing the previous statement of Kings head coach Tim Cone.
“We know that. Luckily, we’ve been in this position before so, hopefully, we can learn from that and we can do better,” he added. “So we cannot take NLEX for granted even if we beat them before.”/PN
