Stats don’t always tell the whole story. Take Nards Pinto, for example. He played a heck of a game against the Converge FiberXers, sparking Barangay Ginebra San Miguel with his contributions off the bench. And those contributions didn’t exactly all show up on the stat sheet.
Nards Pinto was so instrumental in Ginebra’s 99-93 win over Converge that both RJ Abarrientos, who earned Best Player of the Game honors, and Tim Cone lauded his efforts.
“Wanna give credit to Kuya Nards Pinto. He stepped up the whole game,” Abarrientos told reporters unprompted in the postgame press conference. “He played defense, gave us time to relax, get our breath from the bench, so maraming salamat kay Kuya Nards kasi he’s always ready… and he knows he’s one of the veterans on this team.”
Indeed, Pinto was ready, and every one of his nearly 20 minutes of action counted. He even added 7 points and 3 rebounds, including a booming triple to end the third quarter.
Defense Is the Name of the Game for Nards Pinto
Cone was just as effusive in his praise for Nards Pinto—and he didn’t beat around the bush on where exactly he excelled the most: defending Converge hotshot Mikey Williams, whom Cone expected would have a big game on Sunday.
“We really expected a big game from him [Mikey Williams], especially since Juan [Gomez de Liaño] was out. You know, the onus would fall on him and Alec [Stockton] to really carry the team. And so we really did expect a big game for him,” Cone admitted.
For a while in the fourth quarter, it looked like the two-time PBA Finals MVP was going to go back to his Ginebra-slaying ways as he dropped three triples and was getting wherever he wanted in setting up the Converge offense. That is, until Pinto came in and shut the door.
“Nards did a tremendous job in the fourth quarter guarding him. And up until the last couple possessions where we switched Justin [Brownlee] onto him. But without that defense by Nards, we probably would not have won the game,” Cone later said.
Cone was right. Williams had just hit his third trey of the fourth at the 3:42 mark. A few possessions later, Pinto came in at the 3:02 mark—with the unenviable task of slowing down a hotshot getting hot.
Mikey Williams never scored again. And Ginebra survived.
