LOOKING at the stats sheet, it wasn’t only a prolific Myles Powell that prevented Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s red balloons from falling down the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Wednesday night.
“They [Dragons] had a great shooting night from the three-point line where they shot almost 50 percent,” Ginebra head coach Tim Cone said on Friday. “In my mind, we did a good job defensively and we held Powell down to where we wanted [him to be].”
Powell scored 29 points in the Dragons’ 87-84 victory in Game 6, way below his average of 37.5 points in eight games in the league. He also had a 50-point night against Rain or Shine in a 120-87 win last November.
Cone said it was a total team effort by the Dragons, who went 44.3 percent overall from the field against the Gin Kings’ 37.5 percent.
The Dragons nailed 17 of their 36 three-point attempts with Hayden Blankely making six triples, Powell five and Kobey Lam three.
The Gin Kings? They were terrible with 7 of 33 from beyond the arc.
“We only gave up 85 points and I think they averaged like 115 points when Powell was playing,” Cone said. “So we did what we wanted defensively, but we just didn’t knockdown most shots on the offensive end.”
Dragons head coach Brian Goorjian, meanwhile, welcomed the decision to move Game 7 from Friday to Sunday starting at 5:45 p.m. at the 50,000-seat Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.
“There’s no negative for us. It’s extra time,” Goorjian said. “We were ready to play on Friday, but extra time is good for us and no problem there.”
Powell subbed for Bay Area’s Canadian import Andrew Nicholson, also a prolific player at 6-foot-10, who still nurses an ankle injury.
Phoenix Super LPG, meanwhile, announced the promotion of assistant coach Jamike Jarin as interim coach of the Fuel Masters in lieu of head coach Topex Robinson, who didn’t renew his contract with the team last week.