MANILA – Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone could not hide his disappointment after their 118-113 loss to the NLEX Road Warriors on Friday at the Araneta Coliseum.
Cone was frustrated after Ginebra could not close out the game, despite import Justin Brownlee's 46-point outing for the Gin Kings in their PBA Season 50 Commissioner's Cup game.
Brownlee erupted for 26 points in the first half, before dropping 14 more points in the final frame in a losing effort.
"Yeah what a waste, huh? You know we wasted a great performance by Justin," Cone told reporters after the game.
"I would prefer 30 points by Justin and holding the other team down, rather than having this back and forth. Which we did a lot of back and forth scoring. It was a little bit frustrating tonight," he added.
READ: Bolick hits go-ahead triple as NLEX survives Ginebra, Brownlee's 46
Amid Brownlee's scoring outburst, Robert Bolick stepped on the gas for the Road Warriors towards the victory, capped off by his trey to put them up two points, 115-113.
Cone underscored the importance of Ginebra getting their defense on point, giving credit to the Jong Uichico-led Road Warriors.
"Sometimes you just have to tip your cap and say they played a great game. They were awesome, they hit all their shots. They seem to know what we were doing defensively. They really ate up our defense. We didn't establish our defense all night," he said.
"And [if] we score 113 points, we should win the game. And that didn't happen tonight. So we're a little bit upset about it," Cone shared.
Despite the loss, the multi-titled PBA mentor believes the loss is not a cause for concern for the Gin Kings.
"We got a quick turnaround and we can't worry about it. We also have to put it into perspective that it's only the second game in the conference. So hopefully we'll get better from there," Cone explained.
"We just didn't show up with our defense tonight, so that's the bottom line. We hope to be better next time out when we play Converge. We gotta be able to defend. Especially in this conference with the big imports, we gotta be able to defend," he said.
Ginebra will have to shrug off the loss and learn from their lapses, as they get back into action on Sunday.
The Gin Kings look to bounce back against the struggling Converge FiberXers at the Araneta Coliseum.