How can Ginebra complete the come-from-behind series win?

(c) PBA Media Bureau

In a very surprising fashion, Ginebra entered the third game of their series against TNT, down by 2 games. In short, they need to win the last three games if they want to survive and reach the finals.

They started the series-comeback in a dominant fashion, beating TNT by 24 points. So, let us check the 1st quarter of Ginebra and expound the things that they did right and could help them do the unthinkable.

(c) Sports5

- The isolation play of Japeth Aguilar in the elbow against Moala Tautuaa in 2:00 (video time) exhibited a yin and yang. It showed how weak Japeth is but it also showcased his improving face-up game. Japeth will not overpower any of the bigs of TNT. Going forward, his face-up game will be on the microscope.

- In the first four buckets of TNT, two was done through the low post. Ginebra decided to let the defenders of Rogery Pogoy and Mo Tautuaa faced them alone and Ginebra suffered. Maybe, a double-team should be send out once in a while. 

- In the 9-6 minutes game time, you will see two fail high-low plays by the Kings. The first one was intercepted and the next one was deflected. In 9:45 (game time), you will see Scottie trying to pass to Brownlee who was very deep into the post. Roger Pogoy was good enough to avoid that. 

- In the 9-6 minutes also, Japeth Aguilar succeeded in protecting the rim twice. The second play was on 10:31 (video time) when he put an umbrella against Smith. Avoiding fouls and putting up umbrellas will be vital against a huge team like TNT.

- The most effective play of Ginebra for this quarter was a pick-and-roll in the elbow where in the roller gets into the free-throw circle and makes a quick pass to a good shot. Check 12:34 and 13:44. I think that is a key play against a huge team. 

- In the last 4:30 minutes, coach Tim Cone went with his super small-three of Mercado-Thompson-Tenorio and coach Nash countered by putting Rosario in the 3. In 14:00, TNT's size and length were on full-display. In 16:14, TNT will have a smooth pick and roll play because of their size advantage. 

- Another prominent thing that Ginebra did was to quicken the pace. Check 18:17 and 16:54. It is just very logical to use speed against size.

OVERALL

- Coach Tim just did logical things and his players delivered the goods. But, TNT was not totally dominated in the quarter that we checked. Smith's size is a big game changer and Ginebra will need to overcome that for more than 9 minutes in game 4.

Overall, that quarter magnified the importance of Japeth Aguilar and how good TNT is, in using their size.