SMART Clark Giga City - Fatigue issue might really have come to play in the series opener.
Whether it's true or false, surely there's a power outage that must be restored if one side is to get into the fight.
The Meralco Bolts need to switch it on or it's a series all for the Barangay Ginebra Kings.
From an easy 96-79 rout, the Kings are determined to roll on and move to the brink of the PBA Philippine Cup best-of-seven finale.
And as a brilliant coach that he is, Ginebra chief strategist Tim Cone is taking it at the right perspective.
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He's not to be overwhelmed by their lopsided Game One win and take the Bolts lightly.
"Yesterday ended last night," said Cone, the morning after their 17-point blasting of the Bolts Wednesday night at the AUF Sports Center Powered by Smart 5G.
"We have to quickly move forward from last night and get focused on today's practice and tomorrow's game. Everything went right for us and everything went wrong for them in the last game. That's not going to happen tomorrow. We're going to need to come out mentally stronger," said Cone.
He just expects the Bolts to regroup and re-strategize in a bid to recoup the very form shown in their two-game roll to dethrone titlist San Miguel Beer in their quarterfinals matchup.
Three nights later, the Bolts were a shell of their selves in a sorry showing against the Kings.
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Cone felt their four-day rest were a luxury and edge they were able to take advantage of to flatten the Bolts.
"We're able to rest and obviously, it's an advantage for us," said Cone.
But he's been too long in the league to know that Game One doesn't make a whole series.
He didn't need to look far behind to cite a series lost even when winning Game One.
Fresh in his mind was being bushwhacked by the Magnolia Hotshots in the previous Philippine Cup.
"We were favored and we won Game One and we were all sitting nice and pretty, and then Magnolia swept us three games in a row in the semifinals and went on to play San Miguel in the championship," said Cone.
But it's actually a best-of-three quarterfinals where they threw away a 1-0 head start.
"Meralco is on a mission. We interrupted that for one day but hopefully, we continue to interrupt it," said Cone, hoping there's no slowing down for his team this time. (SB)
