Barangay Ginebra San Miguel displayed the heart of a champion when it booked a 119-93 win over Blackwater in the Philippine Basketball Association Governors’ Cup last Sunday at the Philsports Arena.
Kings head coach Tim Cone said they didn’t do anything special in clinching the win that snapped their back-to-back losing skid.
In particular, he lauded Filipino-German banger Christian Standhardinger for stepping up in the absence of injured forward Japeth Aguilar.
Against the Bossing, Standhardinger ran wild, scoring 27 points while import Justin Brownlee and Jamie Malonzo chipped in 25 markers for the Kings, who came out firing right from the opening tip.
“I don’t think we did anything special, I just think we just came out and played our game. We’re just making sure we’re beating the teams that were supposed to beat,” said Cone, who led the Kings to the Commissioner’s Cup crown against the powerful Bay Area Dragons last month.
“Christian has now gone from playing 26, 28 minutes sharing time with Japeth. Now, he is up to 42, 44. His job is really cut out for him right now. We expect a lot from him and he is obviously delivering.”
Aguilar is expected to miss not only the majority of Ginebra’s elimination round campaign but also the sixth window for the FIBA World Cup Asian qualifiers on 24 and 27 January at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.
While Standhardinger is getting praise from Cone, he shared the credit to the team, saying that makes his job easier.
“That’s the great thing about our team. As a unit, we know what we can compensate for since we’re missing such a great player,” Standhardinger said.
“What he brings to the floor is scoring, blocking shots (and) rebounding. We all need to rebound more, we all need to, like what Coach Tim (Cone) says, which is to play better defense, not get beat because we don’t have a Japeth blocking shots out there.”
