Ginebra finally found something to throw off Meralco’s hulking reinforcement Allen Durham.Coach Tim Cone employed a double team on the Best Import awardee, which worked wonders as the Gin Kings limited him to a measly four points in the first half.
Even Durham took notice, saying, “They did some different things defensively, and where they put the ball out of my hands. They haven’t done that the whole series.”
Though he still was able to finish with 20 points on an 8-of-15 shooting from the field, on top of 18 rebounds and six assists, the Bolts’ belated run fell flat, losing to Ginebra, 92-81 on Sunday to fall down, 2-3 in the 2016 PBA Governors’ Cup Finals.
A lot of that should be attributed to Meralco’s flat start, falling behind early by as much as 21, 48-27 before fighting back and trimming the lead to as low as five, 82-77.
Durham, though, believes that the Bolts’ second half showing is enough for them to cure the team’s struggle of a start.
“I think we figured it out in the second half. I had some good shots, but I just missed them. I just have to make those,” he said. “We got to look at the film and see how I can get more touches when they put defense on me. We’ll see what works for us and hopefully, we start the game better.”
Durham also thinks that after all Meralco has gone through this conference, it can push the right buttons to make one huge push starting on Wednesday for Game 6.
“This season has been nothing but adversity for us,” he said. “We got a type of team that can bounce back and we can win those next two games, but we got to have better starts than how we did tonight.”