Ginebra's Thompson sidelined with back injury

MANILA, Philippines -- Barangay Ginebra playmaker Scottie Thompson is expected to miss a number of games due to a back injury, Gin Kings head coach Tim Cone said.

Cone bared that Thompson’s back injury has been bothering him since the FIBA Asia Qualifiers, and it eventually “got worse.”

This, then, resulted in the do-it-all guard missing Ginebra’s 113-107 PBA Cup win over the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters on Friday night.

“We don’t know when he’s gonna be back. This was an issue that was bothering him in the FIBA Asia Qualifiers. It happened a lot while we were in Inspire camp. He was having issues with his back and was sitting out most of practices,” Cone told reporters after the win.

“He fought his way through the games. We tried to limit his minutes in the games hoping he wouldn’t get too bad, but it got worse and now we’re paying for that here, in terms of now, he’s missing games for Ginebra,” he added.

“That’s kinda the sacrifice we make as a group to the national team.”

Despite missing Thompson, Ginebra dished out 25 assists.

Meanwhile, Cone tipped his hat to Nards Pinto, Mav Ahanmisi and Jamie Malonzo for stepping up in the lead playmaker’s absence.

Ahanmisi had a near triple-double of 18 points, nine rebounds and nine assists.

Pinto, for his part, had five points, four boards and three dimes in 29 minutes of playing time.

Malonzo erupted for a career-high 32 markers. 

“So again, we don’t know the timeline. It’s one of those issues that you just can’t tell but a back issue is really a serious issue for a basketball player. We’ll see how it goes,” Cone said.

“I was really pleasantly surprised that we were able to do what we did without Scottie.”

Ginebra will play its second game of the conference on Sunday against Phoenix.