The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel is scheduled for a championship round Game 7 against the Bay Area Dragons at 5:45 PM on January 15, 2023 live from the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.
Note: Livestream starts at 5:45 PM, refresh this page to watch the live game at the mentioned game time.
Forget about the best-of-seven series as the championship round of the 2022 PBA Commissioner’s Cup reached its sudden death phase that’s when the Gin Kings were unable to close the door in Game 6 and gave the visiting Dragons its final push for a chance to grab the elusive hardware.
During the Game 5 battle, the last line of defense of PBA local teams, the Gin Kings figured out how to limit the scoring productions of Bay Area locals and took that earlier 3-2 advantage. Then the foreign team quickly made the needed adjustment and reactivated their flashy and scoring-heavy import Myles Powell.
With Powell listed on Bay Area’s lineup and playing they are unstoppable as the data shows that they are now at 9-of-9. As reported prior to the start of Game 6, the 6-foot-2 guard and a former player of the Philadelphia 76ers are still not in 100% form yet he contributed a team-high of 29 points while shooting 5-of-11 from the three-point territory. That Powell’s scoring contribution upon his return was the majority of their team’s bench points which is 33 points against Ginebra’s 23.
After Japeth Aguilar missed the game-tier shot that could push the game into overtime, Dragon’s head coach Brian Goorjian was seen standing up after he was on his knees seems like he was praying that there’ll be no more five-minute extension. He then embraced Powell showing his appreciation of how his import performed.
“If he’s not there, if the spirit was not there, we got no shot (tonight). It was groomed for failure,” said Goorjian. “But I knew something special was coming up for tonight,” he added.
For Ginebra’s side, it appears that their preparation for Powell wasn’t enough. It was mentioned on other news outlets that they got only 45 minutes to make defensive plays during their practice. The Gin Kings’ scheme to dispose of Bay Area is more geared towards Andrew Nicholson who sat out after twisting his ankle in Game 3.
The good news for head coach Tim Cone and the rest of the Ginebra squad is that they have three days to prepare and hoping that this time around they’ll be able to contain Powell and limit his scoring threats.
“We’ll look at it and rethink,” said Cone. “We have time now. We had like 45 minutes to set the game plan for him in our last practice. So hopefully, we’ll have a little more time and think (about) what we’re doing about it. Look at him a little bit (more),” Cone added.
It was the first time the “Never-Say-Die” squad experienced Powell inside the basketball court. Tonight, Powell can either keep his perfect record in the PBA or give Justin Brownlee his unblemished title run in the league and make it his sixth ring.
“We haven’t experienced him before. We didn’t play him in the elims. So this was the first time we had him,” said Cone.