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[RETUYTUY]

Cone: Ginebra, TnT both dangerous

The Alaska Aces topped the eliminations of the PBA Philippine Cup and will advance to a best-of-seven semifinal playoff against the winner of the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings versus Talk n Text Tropang Texters quarterfinal duel.

Both teams are equally formidable opponents and Alaska coach Tim Cone said he does not have any preference which ball club he would rather face in the semifinal.

“Ginebra or Talk n Text? Neither is an attractive opponent in a best of seven series. But there is never an easy opponent in the semifinal,” said coach Tim.

If the record this season is any indication then the Gin Kings would be the tougher opponents because Alaska split their games against Ginebra.

Alaska beat Ginebra 105-96 last Oct. 25. But the Aces in turn lost to the Gin Kings, 90-93, last Jan. 9. On the other hand Alaska beat Talk n Text twice. The Aces overcame the Tropang Texters 110-106 last Nov. 20 and repeated with a 119-113 victory on Dec. 16.

Whichever team the Aces face next coach Tim is very satisfied with having qualified to the semifinal outright.

“The last time we were in the top two we went to the final. The last time before that we won a championship. That’s how important we feel the semifinals are. It’s really a huge advantage when you make to the semis outright,” said coach Tim.

The biggest hindrance for coach Tim and the Aces will be the long three-week break while they await the survivors of the Wildcard phase and the best-of-five quarterfinals. The Aces went through a similarly long period of inactivity during the Christmas break and they did not handle the situation as well as coach Tim would have wanted.

The Aces roared off to a blazing 11-1 start in the eliminations then promptly lost four of their next five games to wind up with 12-5 card and needing to win their last game.

It took the heroics of Willie Miller, who scored the team’s final nine points, to propel the Aces to a 95-94 victory over the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters and finally push them over the hump and into the semifinals with a 13-win, 5-loss slate.

“It’s one of those things we try to tell our players: you can’t relax if things are going well because you can’t just turn on your intensity when you need to. Obviously we didn’t handle the long 21-day break well. We didn’t practice hard and we came out ‘kampante’ when we played the games. When we needed to win we became tight when faced with the sudden pressure,” said coach Tim.

“That was my fault entirely. I didn’t push our players hard enough during our practices. We lost our edge in the long break and we just couldn’t turn it back on when we needed to. I didn’t do a good job. I hope we learn our lesson and step up a lot more during the coming long break.”

The Aces face another long break but the Alaska mentor is confident that his team will be able to handle the situation better because of what they had to go through to advance to the semifinals.

“We’re looking back on it now and obviously we didn’t handle it well. I didn’t plan it out well. We didn’t practice as well or as hard,” said coach Tim.

The Alaska mentor said he will have to make sure that the Aces practice hard so that they don’t lose that edge that they’ve built up over the course of the double round robin elimination.

“We’ve always been known as a great practice team. We always have great practices where the players work really hard. We have to get back to that to be ready for the semifinal,” said coach Tim.

[Aces_21]

Ginebra nalang!

Sawang sawa nako sa pagmumukha ni Cardona! Nakakatrauma yung ginawa niya last year sa Alaska! Nilagay na ni Cone lahat ng pedeng makapigil kay Cardona pero wala paring epekto! Basta ayaw ko TnT! Iba sila pag mahaba ang series.

Sa Ginebra, mejo basa na ni Tim Cone style nitong mga to, iilang games lang ata napanalunan ng BGK sa atin these past years... Ang masarap talunin BGK... hehehe...

[cheepera23]

ako din gin n alng para wla ng defending champs..

[Kahoko Hino]

kahit sino pa yan, kayang-kaya ng alaska yan.

[alas.kadynastyace]

Gusto ko Ginebra sana kasi mas masarap magpaiyak sa madaming tao gaya nung kanta noon ni Gary Granada "Kapag natalo ang Ginebra."

Pero mas madaming mang-aasar kapag nakakuha tayo ng ilang talo sa series against them (BGK).

Kaya TNT na lang gusto kong mabasag na yung patas na record ng AA vs TNT (kahit di championship ang labanan pwede na). Tsaka mas ok kalaban TNT kumpleto yung lineup at siguradong wala ng SanMigCorp sister teams sa Finals.

Pero kahit sino sana in the end nasa atin ang huling halakhak. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/yahoo.gif)

[trajano]

I go for Ginebra rather than TnT since based on my observation, Chot Reyes knows very well Tim Cone's strategy or coaching style while Jong Uichico always had a hard time winning against Tim Cone.

This post has been edited by trajano: Jan 29 2010, 09:45:09 AM

[tender_but_tough]

Its now 2-0 for TNT.

Its time for the never say die spirit to reign.
I believe Ginebra will win in Game 3, the team has too much pride and wont allow being swept by the defending champs.

With JJ still out, TNTs Jason Castro has created much havoc in the series. Lets see how BGK address its problem on the TNT guards.
Goodluck! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cheers.gif)

[tender_but_tough]

oopss sorry Alaska friends. Nalito nako, dito ko pala naipost.

Anyway, goodluck sa Semis! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/cheers.gif)