Motivated Indeed: Blackwater hands First Loss to Ginebra, What Was the Formula?

Elites use efficient scoring to dominate the Gin Kings

(Photo by the PBA Media Bureau)

When you look at the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings who have Greg Slaughter, Japeth Aguilar, LA Tenorio and Scottie Thompson, you would think that this has been the best Ginebra team that was assembled in the past years and frankly, this Ginebra core has brought wonders to the league's crowd darlings as they have won two of the last Governors' Cup championships against all odds. With Slaughter now healthy and Tenorio free of his injury problems, Ginebra looked like a team that will challenge the supremacy of the San Miguel Beermen in the All-Filipino conference after winning their first two games.

Then, the Gin Kings ran head-to-head against the Blackwater Elites who were STRONGLY MOTIVATED to become the first team to beat Ginebra this season. And that's exactly what happened, folks. In a stunning turn of things, the Elites beat the Gin Kings, 94-77.

What happened? Here are the things that happened:

Good Second and Fourth Quarters

After both squads ended the first quarter with the score tied at 19 apiece, the Elites locked down on D as they limited Ginebra to only 14 points in the second quarter while scoring 22 points of their own. The Gin Kings managed to fight back in the third quarter as they outscored Blackwater, 28-23 but that was the best Ginebra could come up with against Leo Isaac's motivated players as Ginebra could only manage 16 points in the final quarter which was a far cry to Blackwater's 30 points. The two quarters that Blackwater defended well proved to be the difference in the game.

Better Shooting

On paper, Ginebra is considered as a super team in the PBA but against Blackwater, that "super" transformed to "mediocre" as Blackwater was the better team in terms of making the most out of their opportunities and their numbers didn't lie either. Overall, the Elites made 46% of their 78 shot attempts including a 38% shooting from beyond the three-point line. These were far better compared to Ginebra's 36% field goal shooting and 15%  shooting from rainbow country. 

The only place bright spot for Ginebra: They outshot Blackwater at the free throw line, 72%-71%.

Conclusion

The good news for Ginebra though, it's just one game. One bad game doesn't take away the fact that they among the title contenders for this conference. They will bounce back from this setback one way or another.

On the other hand, Blackwater can use this big win to continuously believe that they can compete against the league's bests. Can they keep it up? That's up to them.