Barangay Ginebra needed a little bit of Justin Brownlee magic to squeak past San Miguel Beermen, 87-85, and into the 2023 PBA Governors' Cup Finals on Wednesday.
As he often does, Brownlee did the heavy lifting for Ginebra, nailing a tough jumper to give the Gin Kings an 85-82 lead with 39 seconds left then, after Marcio Lassiter tied it up at 85 with a triple 13 seconds later, dished off to Christian Standhardinger for the go-ahead basket with 4.0 seconds to go.
"I knew I had to be aggressive and attack," Brownlee said. "I had been attacking to the right. I took it to the left and I saw Mo (Tautuaa) step up and try to stop me so I knew I had to make a play and I saw Chris running to the basket."
Ginebra swept the best-of-five series and will now wait for the winner of the TNT Tropang Giga-Meralco Bolts semifinal. Game 1 of the finals will be on Easter Sunday, giving the team a good 11 days off.
Ginebra coach Tim Cone was pleased that they ran the play to near-perfection, explaining: "It was designed for (Brownlee) to be along the baseline and be in that drop position. But, you know, we're not telling him to drive and then look for (Standhardinger).
"But, that's really on Justin. We have trust on him. Even the one before that, it was the same play. But he did it from the right side rather than the left side.
With Ginebra through and the Beermen left to ponder on what might have been, we take a look at three key takeaways from Wednesday's contest.
Historic sweep
Because Ginebra has been one of the most successful franchises in league history, especially over the last seven years, it's hard to fathom that this is actually the first time in their history that they have registered a sweep in a best-of-five semifinal of a PBA conference.
That it came against a powerhouse team like the Beermen made it all the more stunning.
"We definitely didn't expect this sweep," said Brownlee, who will be playing in his 7th PBA finals and will try to maintain his perfect win record. "We definitely expected a hard-fought series just like before.
"The first two games, we won by a big margin. It may have seen maybe for the fans or whoever was watching but it's not easy getting a lead on a team like that. It's hard every possession. Luckily they shot the ball not too good and we had to take advantage of that."
San Miguel coach Jorge Gallent, who took over from Leo Austria prior to the start of the conference, said they just ran into a good team -- even as he admitted he needed to watch film to determine what exactly went wrong for the Beermen, who were rolling heading into the semifinals.
"We just played well in the first 15 games because we were 13 and 2 and then all of a sudden, it just dipped," said Gallent.
"I really have to find out why that thing happened. Games 1 and 2 we weren't there. We weren't focused, I think we were just happy to be in the semis. But this is San Miguel. We are supposed to be in the semis."
Never-say-die, again, for Ginebra
For the majority of the game, though, it appeared like the Beermen would force a Game 4, leading by as many as 18 points and holding Ginebra to its worst shooting in the series. But the game turned in the fourth quarter, where the Kings outscored the Beermen 29-15.
"We just lost focus in the last five minutes of the game," Gallent lamented. "We were complaining a lot and our mind went out of the game. That's why we kind of lost it a little.
"For the first three quarters we were moving the ball a lot then in the fourth quarter the complaining started and the dip came. We just have to be composed with the referees and just let their calls go and move on."
"They had us on our heels," Brownlee said. "I can't say we played smart. We had a lot of turnovers but we came out and never gave up. We kept fighting to the end."
For Cone, though, it was another game that will go down in Ginebra lore as another prime example of NSD.
"if I may borrow from coach Sonny (Jaworski), that was NSD at its finest," Cone said. "They'll never say die. And, I was looking for them.
"Honestly, every time out, I was looking in their eyes. I was looking at their body language to see if they were ready to pack it in and go fight on Friday.But I just never saw the evidence. And so, we just stayed with them.
"It was just a real struggle out there. To be honest, from a coaching standpoint, I was just wondering, do I pull our guys out and live to fight another day on Friday? Or do we keep going at it? And that was my battle throughout the whole third and fourth quarter.
"But they just kept showing a will. And I was looking for them to stop. I was looking for them to give up a little bit. And they never did that. We only led for, like, the last 10 seconds of the game. So it's amazing. Amazing that they stuck with it like they did."
What's next?
Whichever team Ginebra faces in the finals, there will be a special connection.
"If we go against Meralco, it's going to be like, what -- Meralco (Part) 5?" Cone deadpanned. "It's like Shake, Rattle and Roll (a Philippine movie franchise that extended to several installments). But it's always an incredible challenge going against coach Norman (Black).
"And then, of course, (TNT coach) Jojo (Lastimosa) (being) my team captain for years and my assistant coach for years (with Alaska Aces) -- having to go against him is going to be really difficult because he knows me like the back of his hand. So, either one is going to be great.
"We don't have any control of that, so we don't worry about that. We just take who's coming, and then we'll try to figure out the best way to attack them once we figure out who's going to be out there. So, we're going to be watching the series very closely, scouting it as we go, preparing for both teams."
Gallent said the Beermen will take a break and wait for June Mar Fajardo and Terrence Romeo to heal up before they prepare for a pocket tournament in May. Fajardo's absence obviously hurt the Beermen, but Gallent refused to use that as an excuse.
"When June Mar wasn't playing we won three games in a row," he noted. "We just played a great team and a well-coached team. Imagine I was coaching against the winningest coach in the PBA. It was an honor, but I didn't like the sweep. We'll get them next time."