WITH a record-breaking TV audience watching, Barangay Ginebra pulled off a decisive 106-92 win over defending champion TNT Tropang Giga in Game 4 of the PBA Governors’ Cup at the Smart Araneta Coliseum last Sunday.

Now with the scheduled best-of-seven series tied at 2-2, momentum is clearly now with the Gin Kings.

Ask TNT coach Chot Reyes.

“Definitely, they have the momentum now. It was the same thing with us. We had the momentum after two games. Now it’s shifted,” said Reyes in an interview posted at the official PBA website.

“In a seven game series of two very good teams, the momentum can really shift both ways. They definitely have the momentum and we have to find a way to stop it,” added Reyes.

“That’s Finals. That’s basketball, our sport.”

But despite losing the last two games of the series and turning it to a best-of-three affair, Reyes said he was still satisfied.

“If you ask me at the start of the series, after four games it was two-all. I’d say I’d take it and still be happy. Best-of-three. We’re now 0-0.”

Last Sunday, Justin Brownlee finished with a game-high 34 points, including two four-pointers and three three-pointers, six rebounds, four assists, and one steal to power the Kings to the series-tying victory.

Maverick Ahanmisi, Japeth Aguilar, and Stephen Holt added 18 points each, and Scottie Thompson contributed 12 points for the Kings, who hit the century mark for the first time in the series after averaging only 85.6 points in the first three games.

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, who claimed a second Best Import award at the expense of Brownlee, led the way for TNT with 28 points.

Calvin Oftana added 26 points and Rey Nambatac contributed 15 Oftana nailed a three-pointer to trim their deficit to only six, 81-87, to open the fourth period.

“This is the finals. Everybody wants to win so bad. It’s not just about making shots, it’s about how much guys are gonna defend, rebound, and hustle. And that’s what we have been able to do in these last two games,” said Ginebra coach Tim Cone.

“In terms of offense, we just kept making big shots when we needed to and we’ve been doing that pretty much all conference long.”

Meanwhile, the PBA reported that the TNT-Ginebra series is attracting a huge television audience, highlighted by a new ratings record in Sunday night’s Game 4 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The 106-92 win by the Kings drew a rating of 4.7 percent on NUTAM (National Urban Television Audience Measurement) and 4.1 percent on PHINTAM (Philippine National Television Audience Measurement), respectively.

The massive audience share paved way for RPTV to climb and rank no. 3 in the ratings.

Game 4 of the best-of-seven title series peaked at 5.34 percent or viewers of 3.89 million.

The scores :

Ginebra (106) — Brownlee 34, Ahanmisi 18, J.Aguilar 18, Holt 18, Thompson 12, Abarrientos 5, Devance 1, Tenorio 0, Cu 0, Pinto 0.
TNT (92) — Hollis-Jefferson 28, Oftana 26, Nambatac 15, Castro 9, Pogoy 9, Erram 3, Aurin 2, Heruela 0, Khobuntin 0, Williams 0.
Quarterscores: 30-25, 54-42, 85-77, 106-92.

Game Wednesday:

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)
7:30 p.m. — TNT vs. Barangay Ginebra

The results;

Game 1– TNT 104, Ginebra 88
Game 2 — TNT 96, Ginebra 84.
Game 3 — Ginebra 85, TNT 73.
Game 4 — Ginebra 106, TNT 92.
(Series tied, 2-2)

AUTHOR PROFILE

Robert Andaya