Reporting note: this article draws on philstar.com; LodiScore provides the summary and editorial framing.
Ginebra takes the last quarterfinal ticket
Ginebra vs San Miguel is the PBA Governors' Cup quarterfinal the Gin Kings did not pick, and it is now official. Barangay Ginebra claimed the final playoff berth by beating the Blackwater Bossing, 101-96, on Friday evening, finishing third in Group B and drawing the San Miguel Beermen in a best-of-five series.
The result ended an elimination round in which Ginebra had almost no margin. The Gin Kings needed three wins in their last four games to stay in contention, and they entered the final stretch competing with the 4-6 Meralco Bolts and Blackwater for the last quarterfinal slot.
For a team that spent weeks outside the qualifying places, the prize is a matchup against one of the conference's most dangerous rosters. Head coach Tim Cone's reaction after the win made clear he understood the trade-off.
Tim Cone calls it a fool's consolation
"Consuelo de bobo," Cone said, using the Filipino phrase for a fool's consolation. "You fight your way to the playoffs and your reward is you have to face San Miguel."
The phrase describes a reward that arrives looking like a punishment, and Cone did not pretend otherwise. He said there was "not much choice" about the pairing, arguing that teams should not try to shape their own bracket.
"To me, I've always felt through the years that you play the game the way you're supposed to play it. You play it hard. You play it to win. And then you let the cards fall where they may," he said. He added that the job is to take care of business, meaning what sits directly in front of the team.
He was blunter about the alternative. "I think once you get into the point where you start choosing, I don't know, it's just like bad karma or whatever," he said.
NLEX was not the softer option
Ginebra's third-place finish in Group B put it in line for a cross-group quarterfinal, with the Beermen and NLEX Road Warriors, the top seed in Group A, the two opponents Cone named as possible.
Cone dismissed the idea that NLEX represented an easier draw. He noted the Road Warriors have been playing great basketball all conference long and that they beat Ginebra up in a practice game.
"So it wasn't really a team that we were excited to play either," he said. "And obviously, we're not excited to play San Miguel." That leaves Ginebra preparing for a series in which, by the coach's own account, neither path offered comfort.
Ginebra vs San Miguel and what the series length offers
"It's a best of five series. So, you know, that kind of equals it all out," Cone said. He expects "a really good battle" and described the individual matchups as very interesting.
Cone also took stock of how his team arrived at this point. He called the group tough and said he was proud of his players for working their way back into the conference and still making the playoffs, adding that it "didn't look that way a couple weeks ago."
"We had to really scratch and claw to get to where we were," he said. The task now is to carry that late form into a series against a team he himself labeled explosive.
Game 1 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum
Game 1 of the Gin Kings-Beermen clash is set for Tuesday, 7:30 p.m., at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City.
For Ginebra, the opener will show whether the resilience of the last four elimination games travels into a longer series. For San Miguel, it is a first look at a third-seeded opponent that has already survived the pressure of must-win basketball.
The original report on Cone's post-game comments appeared on philstar.com.
