What was thought as an exciting and bruising Game 3 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals, turned out to be a dud. The Gin Kings was clobbered by Beermen in an embarrassing lost 132-94, a 38-points margin.
Even Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone could not believe what happened because this is the most t awry defeat in the PBA championship match from the league’s best and admired coach.
Cone, who holds 20 league titles, witnessed how his team was clobbered and this brought him back of what he once did to the Beermen two decades earlier when he was still with Alaska.
Back then, Cone blasted San Miguel 99-61 in Game 6 of the 1998 Philippine Cup and that 38-point blowout stood for 20 years until the Beermen caught up.
The lead would have been 40-points for the Beermen had Aljon Mariano not made shot the game’s final layup with 44 seconds left. San Miguel really played their best based on the court shooting at a 51.5 percent clip on 52-of-101 shots and was 14-of-34 from long distance while holding Barangay Ginebra to just 35-of-74 attempts from the field.
They outrebounded the Gin Kings, 55-38, and was ahead 20-8 under the offensive glass. Many fans expressed their disappointment to Coach Tim Cone for not been able to match San Miguel’s tactics in the court that led to the 38-points loss. For Cone, this is what he said, “I have nothing to say other than I am embarrassed by our performance.
Needless to say, ‘They’re too good for us.’ “But we will definitely come back with a vengeance,” said Cone after his team dropped 2-1 in the series.
