Gin Kings eye hill, Tropa seek logjam

MANILA, Philippines — Having been burned by this very team before, Barangay Ginebra doesn’t feel comfortable at all holding a one-game edge through three matches against tough TNT.

“It’s a long series and the mission is the championship,” said Stephen Holt ahead of the Gin Kings’ attempt at moving on the hill of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup finals against the defending champions in tonight’s Game 4 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The Gin Kings put themselves in position to go 3-1 after taking the tie-breaking Game 3, 116-102, with Holt breaking out of his scoring slump and firing the bulk of his 23 in their tone-setting first-quarter barrage.

Holt scored merely one point in the first two matches but maintained he couldn’t care less if he wound up with a big fat egg again as long as he helped Ginebra win by doing other things.

“Whether I have four good games or four bad games doesn’t really matter as long as we get those four wins,” he said.

“I’m happy to step up for the team, something to build on. Me personally and us as a group, we definitely feel confident but then the work’s not done,” added the Fil-Am guard, whose two previous finals appearances in the PBA ended in heartbreak at the hands of the Tropang 5G.

If they want to force a 2-2 tie, the Tropang 5G need to be more prepared to stop their rivals from shooting the lights out as they did early in Game 3 and take more care of the ball after giving up 20 turnover points last time.

“Mahirap sila pigilan ‘pag nakaka-shoot talaga sa una and may mga lapses din kami. So back to the drawing board, kung ano ‘yung mga adjustments na gagawin namin for the next game,” TNT star Calvin Oftana said.

Oftana is expected to be a man on a mission after accounting for only two points in their Game 3 loss.