Here are the live scores, updates, and results of the 2022 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Playoffs Semi-Finals Game 2 between the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and the Magnolia Chicken Timplados Hotshots scheduled on December 16, 2022, at 3:00 PM live from the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City, Metro Manila.
The Gin Kings will try to make a repeat and take a commanding 2-0 semis lead while the Hotshots are re-grouping and trying to figure out what went wrong in their series opener to even the score at 1-all.
Game 1 of the Manila Clasico is all about mental strategy above basketball playing skills. That’s the style of play you’ll get from these two veteran head coaches who won titles by deploying that kind of plan. In the semis opener, it was Ginebra’s coach Tim Cone who got the first blood, and probably one of his plots is to slow down Magnolia’s import.
“It’s a struggle and it’s such a mental game out there. Those guys and our guys kept battling. It’s not a pretty game. There were no pogi points as it’s about getting it done, and that’s what our guys did… get it done,” said Cone.
The Gin Kings put Christian Standhardinger to guard Nick Rakocevic and the Fil-German’s pesky defense seems distracted Hotshots’ foreign reinforcement that led to his ejection by committing two technical fouls. Cone is expecting that the Serbian import will come back much stronger in Game 2 especially since they wanted to avoid a 0-2 disadvantage.
“In Game 2, we’re going to see a lot of more. We’re going to see a motivated Rakocevic come back so we’re going to have to brace ourselves for that,” Cone said.
Related: Barangay Ginebra San Miguel vs Magnolia Hotshots Game 3
The surprising part in Game 1 is that despite importless, Magnolia was able to hang on and kept the score close behind the hot shooting of Paul Lee who tried to take over the scoring slack left by Rakocevic. Lee registered 21 points while Rakocevic had 10 points, eight rebounds, and two swats before he got thrown out of the match.
Without his counterpart, seems like it’s easy to think that Justin Brownlee will dominate the game but that didn’t happen. That’s how good Magnolia’s defense is and that’s the puzzle that the Gin Kings need to solve this evening in order for them to get much better control of the series.
“We were used to getting stuff from Justin and they took a lot of what Justin normally takes away. Hopefully we can find ways to counter it and give Justin more looks in Game 2,” said Cone.