PBA Commissioners’ Cup: Bay Area Dragons face must-win Game 6 on Wednesday against Barangay Ginebra San Miguel
- Import player Andrew Nicholson has 50 per cent chance to return for the Dragons
- Keeping Justin Brownlee quiet essential to Dragons’ hopes of staying alive in series
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The Bay Area Dragons are facing a do-or-die Game 6 in the Philippines Basketball Association Commissioners’ Cup finals on Wednesday night.
Trailing Barangay Ginebra San Miguel 3-2 in the best-of-seven-series, the Dragons are expected to welcome back Glen Yang after the point guard missed Sunday’s 101-91 Game 5 loss with an ankle injury.
But import player Andrew Nicholson remains a doubt with the injury sustained in last week’s 89-82 defeat in Game 3 – in an 89-82 loss.
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In Nicholson’s absence, Hong Kong’s Duncan Reid, who was limited to just 13 minutes over the first three games, has spent far more time on the floor over the past two encounters.
“We will make a few defensive adjustments and focus on some rebounding issues,” the 33-year-old Reid said. “Our offence has been running well the last few games and the whole series had been tightly contested.”
Finding a way to contain Ginebra’s key player Justin Brownlee will be vital. The 34-year-old American import has averaged 30.8 points and 12.4 rebounds in the finals so far.
“Brownlee is a great player, so it is about making his shots as difficult as possible,” Reid said.
Yang said it was essential for the Dragons to stay out of foul trouble with Brownlee, something that would allow Zhu Songwei and Hayden Blankley to be “more aggressive with him”.
In their first game without Nicholson last Friday, the East Asia Super League franchise turned a 12-point deficit into a 94-86 win to even the series at 2-2. The trio of Kobey Lam, Zhu Songwei and Yang – who played the entire 48 minutes – combined for 66 points.
But the Dragons could not replicate their efforts on Sunday night and trailed by as many as 18 points, before trailing for the third time in the series.
That loss pushed the Dragons to the brink and team head coach Brian Goorjian said he was ready “to roll the dice” and welcome back his key players if there was to any chance of forcing a decisive Game 7.
“There is a chance both will be back, we are working very hard,” Goorjian said. “The fact that we were playing three games in five days [did not help] but now we got three days.
“We are hoping that we are going to get those two back. If we lose we are out, it is to that point, so if there is any chance we will roll the dice. I am putting 50-50 for Andrew and 75-25 for Glen.”
The 69-year-old veteran coach also singled out Hong Kong basketball star Yang for his importance to the team.
“For our team, and the way we are put together, Glen is valuable,” Goorjian said. “When the pressure was on again on the offensive end trying to get a good shot and get through our stuffs, missing him was noticeable from a coaching standpoint.
“He is always the one to run sets for me, when he was not there, I missed him.”
Game 6 of the Commissioners’ Cup finals will be held at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Wednesday night in Quezon City. The Dragons, who topped the league with a 10-2 regular season record, must win to force a decider on Friday, at the Philippine Arena in Santa Maria.
