The strange run of the PBA Commissioner's Cup finals has kept its course.
After the Game One rout came the Game Two rout, the Game Three rout and yet another rout in Game Four.
Barangay Ginebra took its turn to shoots the lights out Friday night in a 130-100 demolition of San Miguel Beer that sent the series back to scratch through four games of the best-of-seven series before a crowd of over 12,000 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Named the Best Import before the game, Justin Brownlee played up to the citation, coming through with a near triple-double performance (37 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists) to lead the Kings to the series-tying Game Four win.
Solid complementary jobs of Greg Slaughter, LA Tenorio, Joe Devance and Scottie Thompson had the Kings stopping the SMB two-game charge and duplicating their 129-99 win in the series opener.
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The Kings and the Beermen fight for the pivotal 3-2 lead in Game Five in the same venue Sunday.
"I'm as shocked as everybody else with the series. That's strange. It's been strange. I have not seen one and have not been to one," said Ginebra coach Tim Cone.
"I think what happened was that, though they're more than we are, we've got two explosive teams. If you allow one to have the momentum, it's hard to break because they're so good," Cone added.
"It's my turn to say coach Tim (Cone) nice bawi. And before this game, he kept on saying we're too good, too strong for them, this game showed it's not true," said SMB coach Leo Austria.
June Mar Fajardo was the man of the moment before the game as he won the 2018 PBA-Masters Sardines Best Player of the Conference. And in the course of the game, Fajardo reached another personal milestone in hitting the 5,000-point plateau.
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But the Kings spoiled Fajardo's night, stealing the thunder in the end on their 30-point rout.
In another mind-boggling chapter in the series, the Gin Kings started the game with 17 unanswered points and stayed in full control throughout the match in a huge turnaround from their poor showing in the last two games that they lost by a whopping combined margin of 63 points.
It's a dominant wire-to-wire for the Kings as they did in Game One and as the Beermen did in Game Two.
"What's gonna happen in Game Five is anybody's guess," said Cone.(SB)
The scores:
Ginebra 130 - Brownlee 37, Slaughter 19, Devance 18, Tenorio 17, Mercado 9, Aguilar J. 8, Thompson 7, Caperal 7, Chan 4, Mariano 2, Manuel 2, Caguioa 0, Cruz 0, Ferrer 0.
San Miguel 100 - Santos 22, Fajardo 15, Standhardinger 15, Balkman 14, Cabagnot 13, Nabong 6, Lassiter 4, Pessumal 4, Heruela 3, Ross 2, Rosser 2.
Quarters: 39-21, 67-52, 97-75, 130-100.
