The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel is scheduled for a Game 1 Finals match against the Meralco Bolts at 7:00 P.M. on January 7, 2020 live from Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City.
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The Gin Kings and the Bolts will return for its third installment in the biggest stage of the PBA Governors’ Cup in four seasons.
Ginebra has dominated the past two Finals appearances versus the Bolts. The Gin Kings absolutely wanted to continue that trend while the Bolts hopes that this time around they have the needed antidote to reverse the outcome of this current version of the third conference in their favor.
For Meralco’s head coach Norman Black, he wanted to hold on to their no-longer-a-secret-sauce strategy and that’s their defense and rebounding.
For coach Black, that’s the main key to win the championship and that’s also the reason why they found themselves back in the Finals.
“We defend well, we rebound the ball well. We don’t do these things, we’re not gonna beat them,” said Black.
“Those are the things that got us to this point, we’re in the championship, so for us to beat them, we’re gonna have to at least do that,” he added.
If their opponent boasts of their sterling defense, the Gin Kings are also proud of their offensive efficiency. Actually they led the league in this season-ending tourney in points per game with 105.3 an outing.
In their Finals clinching game versus the NorthPort Batang Pier in Game 4 of the semi-finals, they logged their highest output with 120.
Yet, for Gin Kings head coach Tim Cone, he wanted his troops to have their weapons clean and ready for a scoring barrage or else Meralco will do their own damage.
“I feel kinda like a counter pouncher right now because Meralco’s been very definite in the way they play and the way they’ve been successful in terms of their defense, in terms of their rebounding and we’re gonna have to find ways to counter that,” said Cone.
“We realize those are the real strong points of their game and we’re gonna have to try to figure out ways to get our offense going and to keep them off the boards. That’s where the battle comes in, where the battle should be fought and won – on really good defense and rebounding,” he added.