Barangay Ginebra San Miguel is now just one win away from winning the PBA Commissioner’s Cup title. This after Justin Brownlee staked the barangay to a 100-95 victory in Game 5 on Friday with a legacy-defining 54-point effort that included 35 points in the second half alone.
Brownlee, though, knows that getting that fourth win to clinch the championship will be a Herculean task—especially against the TNT Tropang 5G, a team JB hasn’t beaten in the Finals in the last three years.
“We got twice-to-beat. But of course, with a team like TNT, it’s hard to close the series,” said Brownlee, whose 54 points on Friday broke his previous career high of 51 and is the highest-scoring PBA Finals output since Tony Harris also scored 54 in 1993.
Tim Cone Knows What Brownlee Is Thinking
Ginebra head coach Tim Cone knows exactly what Brownlee means. And that is why he specifically told his players after Game 5 that there was no cause to celebrate the huge win.
“I went into the locker room and said, ‘Hey, we’re not celebrating. You can’t celebrate a game like this. You just put it away and move forward,’” Cone said. “This team, they can come back and beat us twice. We’re gonna have to find a way to fight back.”
Cone isn’t entirely wrong. TNT can’t just come back from a 3-2 deficit—they have, in fact, done it already, and against Brownlee and Ginebra no less. That happened in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals in Season 49, when the crowd darlings roared ahead, 3-2, after a 73-66 Game 5 victory. But TNT won Game 6, 87-83, before taking Game 7 in OT, 87-83.
So, yes, TNT has been in this exact same situation and still came out on top. That is why Brownlee and Cone remain wary of the Tropa’s ability to fight back.
No Excuses
All things considered, Ginebra can expect a spirited showing from TNT, even if both teams are starting to run on fumes already—especially Brownlee and the Gin Kings. But that’s no excuse for JB, who is choosing instead to focus on the bigger picture.
“I think everybody’s tired right now,” Brownlee admitted. “But you just got to keep the bigger picture in mind…. Everybody’s tired right now. So, there are no excuses.”
