BARANGAY Ginebra is ready to play the cards dealt to it.
Up against the top seed San Miguel Beermen, the Kings are bracing for a tough semifinals series but at the same time, understands that winning the PBA Philippine Cup title meant going through the perennial All-Filipino champions.
“That’s the runway we’ve been given, and that’s the runway we’ve got to go through,” admitted Barangay Ginebra coach Tim Cone.
The Kings arranged a best-of-seven series with the Beermen after making short work of the Converge FiberXers in the quarterfinals, 88-80. San Miguel meanwhile, did the same against eight seed and deposed champion Meralco, 108-97.
It will be the second semifinals encounter between the two teams this season since the Governors’ Cup, which the Kings won in six games.
Despite beating San Miguel back then, Cone said the Beermen remain a formidable lot.
“They’re still the old San Miguel team. That team is completely different with an import and without an import,” said Cone.
Besides, the Beermen beat the Kings too, in their head-to-head encounter in the conference, 104-93.
“I mean that’s really obvious. When they go All-Filipino, they are motivated, they are confident, and they play really tight together. So that’s really their best conference, obviously,” said Cone.
For that, the King are looking forward to a long series.
“It’s just going to be a hard series for us. No doubt about it. But that’s why we play the game” said the Ginebra coach. “If it’s easy, we’re probably not going to be excited playing the game all the time. The hardest makes the game more exciting, we’re gonna use that, and see what we can do.”