EVEN if he doesn't know yet who his team will be facing in the PBA Governors Cup semifinals, Ginebra coach Tim Cone already knows his work is cut out for him.
"The drawback is, we're so big and we're having difficulty against smaller, quicker teams," was how Cone assessed it, referring to the likes of TNT and Rain or Shine.
"We didn't have much difficulty matching up with San Miguel because they're big also with June Mar (Fajardo), but it's tougher for us against TNT or Rain or Shine because they're quick and they have shooting bigs," Cone added.
"We're still exploring how to best handle that."
Cone has ample reason to be hard-pressed to come up with a solution for his Kings are ranged against their eliminations tormentor, the KaTropa, in a best-of-five series that starts Monday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
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Both protagonists want to come out strong and sustain their charge until the end to gain a headstart in the duel, one fact TNT coach Nash racela can't stress enough.
"Game 1 in a series is always important," Racela pointed out. "Despite having minimal time to prepare, we'll try our best to counter Ginebra's schemes."
Indeed, the KaTropa have had relatively little rest since overcoming gritty Rain or Shine in a two-game quarterfinals matchup that ended only last Saturday.
In contrast, the Kings have had the advantage of rest since needing only a 104-84 dispatching of San Miguel Beer in their own quarterfinals pairing two days before.
Still, Cone could have used a little more time to prepare to prepare his crew for the KaTropa, who beat the Kings badly, 92-121, in their lone elimination round meeting last Sept. 23.
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"We thought we had an idea of doing something against TNT and it blew up in our faces," Cone pointed out.
"It was like back to the drawing board for us. We figure we still have time to figure out what's going to work for us until we get better, better and better. But it takes a little more time."
The 29-point beat down was the worst beating Ginebra has had the entire season and that comes after TNT also manhandled the perennial crowd favorites 3-1 in the Commissioner's Cup semis last June.
Since Glen Rice Jr and Justin Brownlee are expected to cancel each other out, the burden now is on the Ginebra locals to match TNT's pace anchored on the backcourt duo of Jayson castro and Roger Pogoy and if the KaTropa would continue to contain the Kings' towering frontliners of Greg Slaughter, Japeth Aguilar and Joe Devance.
