Gin Kings face uphill battle against new SMB ‘Death Five’, says Tim Cone

Brgy. Ginebra head coach Tim Cone admitted that San Miguel demonstrated its formidable power by beating them in Game 1 of their semifinal series in the ongoing PBA Season 48 Commissioner’s Cup.

Cone acknowledged that his team performed satisfactorily in the opening game of the best-of-five series but their opponents were simply superior as Bennie Boatwright and June Mar Fajardo produced their usual impressive numbers.

To make things even more difficult, CJ Perez had his most prolific scoring performance for the Beermen in this conference, leading the squad with 26 points en route to the 92-90 victory.

“We tried to stay with them,” said Cone shortly after the gut-wrenching loss. “We stayed with them but they made the plays down the stretch and we didn’t make the plays down the stretch. Basically, that was the game. We are going to look at the video and see what needs to be adjusted.”

“I liked our effort tonight. We didn’t play a sharp game. We can play sharper than that. Obviously, San Miguel can play sharper than that as well. I just like the way our guys stuck in the game despite not playing up to what we felt was up to par, and gave ourselves a chance to win, but came up short,” he added.

According to Cone, the present San Miguel squad can be likened to the previous Beermen teams that were once nicknamed the ‘Death Five’, which consisted of June Mar Fajardo, Arwind Santos, Chris Ross, Marcio Lassiter, and Alex Cabagnot.

“We just have to pay a little bit more attention to detail. We are going to try to find a way to beat this good team, tough team. They have a lot of different kinds of weapons. They got their own version of the ‘Death Five’ except that Boatwright is playing Arwind Santos,” said Cone.

“It’s like Arwind and June Mar together and the Death Five except Boatwright is five inches taller, 30 pounds heavier, and shoots his ball as well as Arwind did. Just makes our job even harder,” he added.

Cone also expects a different SMB player to rise to the occasion in Game Two on Friday, similar to how Perez performed on Wednesday.

“CJ had a great game. When you put so much focus on June Mar, to defend June Mar, and now we have to defend Boatwright, and they have other guys who can step up. And tonight, it was CJ, said Cpne.”

“Terrence didn’t play. I assume he might come back on Friday. But he might be the next guy to step up. Or Marcio. Or Chris. Or Trollano. They have a lot of weapons. That’s kinda like the choices you make. Focus on June Mar and Boatwright, and someone else is going to beat you,” added the league’s winningest mentor.