How far Barangay Ginebra goes in the 2020 Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup Finals against the TNT Tropang Giga will be determined by how far Stanley Pringle can take them.
Just like Justin Brownlee, who led the Gin Kings to four PBA crowns, it will be up to Pringle to lift Ginebra to its first PBA Philippine Cup title in 13 years. The last time Ginebra won the Philippine Cup was during the 2006-2007 PBA season.
TNT is well aware that to beat Ginebra, they will have to shut down or at least limit the production of Pringle whose production is like night and day between Ginebra’s two wins and its loss in the Finals.
In Game 3 won by TNT Pringle was held to just 11 points. He also had four rebounds, two assists and two steals.
This is in sharp contrast to his earlier games won by Ginebra.
Pringle was spectacular in his team’s Game 2 victory when he had 34 points, 8 assists, six rebound and one steal. He was equally productive in Game 1 when he had 24 points, 7 assists, 7 rebounds and 2 steals.
TNT relied on their scrambling defense to contain Ginebra. The Gin Kings were limited to just 67 points in Game 3 after averaging 96 points in the Games 1 and 2. And Pringle had the biggest drop off.
TNT’s Simon Enciso was assigned to Pringle almost all game long. He stuck close to Pringle and when Enciso was brushed off by screens a teammate was quick to pick up Pringle if he dribbled the ball or close out if he took a shot.
The Tropang Giga did not just clamp down on Pringle they also forced Ginebra to commit 23 turnovers which were converted to 17 points.
Finally, TNT relied almost exclusively on just triples and drives or post ups on their offense. The Tropang Giga scored 39 points (converting 13 of 43 triple attempts) from three pointers compared to just 18 points (6 of 18) by Ginebra.
TNT shot poorly from three-point distance but they had so many attempts it more than made up for the poor percentage.
Ginebra and TNT were playing Game 4 of the 2020 PBA Philippine Cup Finals as we went to press.
