Barangay Ginebra San Miguel lived to fight another day in the PBA Philippine Cup with their 105–85 Christmastime dismantling of the Converge FiberXers. Playing a starring role in that blowout win at the Smart Araneta Coliseum was RJ Abarrientos, who exploded for a PBA career-best 35 points to complement the stellar all-around game of Scottie Thompson.
Afterward, Ginebra coach Tim Cone gave his sophomore the ultimate compliment, likening him to an all-time gunner who changed the modern game: Stephen Curry.
“He’s got that capability, and we all know that. We’ve seen it in the past,” Cone told reporters about Abarrientos’ flamethrowing ways. “He can get going, almost Steph Curry-like. He can just find an area that’s open on the floor and throw it up there, and it’s gonna go in.”
That was precisely the case against Converge, as Abarrientos made 12 of his 18 attempts and went 6-for-8 from deep en route to his career high.
Cone Wants RJ Abarrientos to Score
Believe it or not, though, it didn’t look like Abarrientos was going to go ballistic on Christmas Day, as he started with two turnovers and was uncharacteristically passive in the first half, attempting just three shots and converting one—a trey.
That slow start naturally prompted Cone to appeal to his star guard: Let it fly.
“I actually complained to him a little bit in the middle of the second quarter, early second quarter. I told him he wasn’t looking for his shot enough, he was passing the ball,” Cone admitted postgame. “I said he needed to look for his shot more. And so he came out in the second half and looked for it, and it went in.”
Shoot the ball RJ Abarrientos did, as he scored 11 points in the third quarter on 4-for-5 shooting, including a triple. But he saved the best for last in the fourth, going off for 21 big points on four treys to help Ginebra pull away from the FiberXers.
A Capable Scorer Like His Tito
In the same postgame presser, Cone acknowledged that he sometimes has to remind RJ Abarrientos to look for his shot more—something he did occasionally with the latter’s uncle, PBA great Johnny Abarrientos.
“I had the same problem with him as his uncle Johnny in the past. They wanna be point guards, they wanna be pure point guards, and both of them are really capable scorers, and they kinda forget that part of the game sometimes,” Cone acknowledged. “So, they need to be reminded to take a few shots. But his DNA is to be a point guard, set people up, but he’s got a lot more ability than just your normal point guard.”
On Christmas Day against Converge, RJ Abarrientos certainly didn’t look like a normal point guard. He was, to borrow Cone’s description, Steph Curry-like.
