After trading wins so far, Gin Kings and Dragons target critical Game 5 victory

Brian Goorjian and Tim Cone have always emphasized that one game does not change any championship series, including the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup Finals which have been reduced to a best-of-three.

“Winning a game doesn’t mean anything,” Goorjian said as the Bay Area Dragons hoped to ride on the crest of a big win of late and take a 3-2 lead over Barangay Ginebra on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

But Game 5 set at 5:45 pm may be the one that can finally determine whether the series is full of twists and turns from one side.

Ginebra and Bay Area have traded wins since the Finals began last Christmas, with the last two games ending in comeback fashion.

“It’s a tie, you’ve got to win four,” Goorjian said. “But this thing is still interesting for everyone. It’s not going to be worse than going down 3-1 and losing by 30, and going to another game, and then the series is over.

“We have something. There is more to it and we want to make it. We have the responsibility to make this series good for the PBA,” he said.

Bay Area avoided falling 3-1 in the title game, missing Andrew Nicholson due to a sprained ankle to win 94-86 in front of 17,236 fans who were mostly stunned as Ginebra failed to defend a 12-point quarter. lead.

“It’s disappointing,” Cone lamented via text message the day after. “We had a chance to gain traction in the series and put Bay Area on the edge. But you have to tip the cap to Bay Area. Even though there were no imports, they came into the game with a good spirit and played with a good motor the whole game.

30-point barrage

The Dragons got the win led by a 30-point barrage from Kobey Lam, steady playmaking from Glen Yang and the more versatile Zhu Songwei. But Goorjian also got contributions from big men Duncan Reid and 7-foot-5 Liu Chuanxing, showing that Nicholson’s absence can be filled under center.

“I keep talking [that] this is a seven-game series, the playoffs are a different thing, they come every day, you have to stay ready. I believe in him [Reid] and he was a key piece [in Game 5]. We played through the pressure with him on the catch, and played him,” the Bay Area coach said.

“I just think Liu is good enough defensively to get by and he’s a real presence on the glass just with his sheer size. We got an advantage from him that we didn’t have against San Miguel [in the semifinals].”

Heavy minutes

Both Reid and Chuanxing will get heavy minutes although there is still a little room for Nicholson to return, if his left ankle improves enough to see action.

Cone, as well as Conference Player of the Year Scottie Thompson and Import of the Year Justin Brownlee, acknowledged that Ginebra may not have considered the Bay Area situation with Nicholson before Game 4, and it ended up being costly.

This may be a tough lesson for everyone in the Ginebra camp. But Cone, because he had preached even before the two teams clashed, said that it can be remedied even if the plot thickens in the series between the protagonists.

“We have no excuses,” Cone said. “Like I said at the beginning, it’s going to be a tough series.”

“Nothing is easy in the Finals.”

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