BARANGAY Ginebra goes outright for the kill when it battles TNT in Game 6 of their PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup Finals on Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.
The Gin Kings regained the driver’s seat of the series, 3-2, thanks to their pulse-pounding 100-95 overtime win on Independence Day. Justin Brownlee stood at the forefront of Ginebra’s offensive, finishing with a new career-high 54 points, knocking down shot after shot during regulation play, and through the extra session, before Troy Rosario and RJ Abarrientos delivered the killer blows in the end.Game time is at 7:30 p.m. “I just wanted to be aggressive for my team,” said Brownlee, whose all-out effort included 14 rebounds. “TNT played very tough and very hard, but we just showed never-say-die tonight.”Ginebra is itching to win its first league title since ruling the 2023 Commissioner’s Cup Finals. That title series reached an epic Game 7, played in front of 54,589 fans at the Philippine Arena, setting a new PBA single-game attendance record. But the Tropang 5G won’t simply roll and die as the charges of coach Chot Reyes are expected to bring their A-game in an effort to force a winner-take-all match next Wednesday.Chris McCullough, Roger Pogoy and Jordan Heading, along with veterans Jayson Castro and Rey Nambatac, will be leading the way once more, though the biggest letdown so far in the last three games is Calvin Oftana. The Gilas mainstay, who had 31 points in Game 2, shot just 2-of-13 from three-point range in the last three Finals matches. TNT’s ability to bounce back and force a Game 7 will increase immensely if Oftana could rediscover his shooting on Sunday. The Tropang 5G have dominated the Gin Kings in their last three Finals series, dating back to the 2023 Governors’ Cup. TNT’s last three PBA titles happened with three-time Best Import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson as its import. The Jordanian naturalized player though is still out, recovering from a torn Achilles he sustained last December while playing for the Meralco Bolts in the East Asia Super League home and away Season 3.
