ALL ABOUT PLAYERS – CONE

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TIM Cone may have just moved alongside a coaching legend, but he would rather deflect the credit to his players.
Cone pointed out his entire San Mig Coffee crew as main factor in the Mixers’ 87-77 triumph over Petron Blaze last Friday that gave them the PBA Governors’ Cup crown at the packed Smart Araneta Coliseum.

“I’ve probably said this before, I’m totally shocked, and I’m not saying that lightly, at how our guys were able to do that (win),” said Cone following the victory that enabled his team to wrap up the best-of-seven Finals.

It was the franchise’s 10th title in all and Cone’s 15th, tying him with the legendary Virgilio ‘Baby’ Dalupan as the league’s winningest.

Cone said it’s all about the players.

“I did very little coaching over the last couple of games,” related Cone. “I really tried to step back and told the guys, ‘This is you, this is yours.’ They didn’t play perfect basketball, but they played with perfect effort. Especially tonight, it was a great effort game.”

The final figures in some of the game’s key departments clearly bear that out as San Mig emerged with a 57-46 advantage off the boards, shot better from the field with a 33-for-73 clip and had three more second chance points with 12. Those helped the Mixers offset their 15 turnovers that were three more than Petron’s and led to four less turnover points than the Boosters’ 16.

Curiously, Cone admitted there were details in the decider that seemed to him like a blur.

“We hit some big shots and we got some blocked shots and… I don’t know,” he said. “A Game 7 kind of goes through like a dream. You don’t even really try to focus on everything that happened because everything happens so quickly in a Game 7. You just have to move on, move on, move on to the next play. You don’t dwell on the other ones.”

That’s also why Cone can’t help but keep making general statements in trying to expound on why his team managed to top a Petron team that won Games 1 and 3 and got a new lease on life through a 99-88 count just two days before.

“It came down to a Game 7 and I guess maybe we just had a little more intent at the end of the game,” said Cone.

None personified that the most than Marc Pingris, who finished with 19 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks while leaving his indelible prints on a fiery San Mig windup that spelled the game’s biggest difference.

The man who starred in Gilas Pilipinas’ runner-up finish in the FIBA Asia tilt last May had five of his rebounds in the payoff period and three of his points and one of his swats inside the final 47 seconds to secure the victory.

Marqus Blakely, sitting helplessly on the bench after after fouling out while his team got beaten in a similar deciding game by Rain or Shine last year, made sure he stayed out of foul trouble this time and finished the game and his personal business.

The Best Import awardee also had 19 points and added 13 rebounds and four steals, the last two of his points and two of his swipes helping spark the endgame surge from an 80-77 count.

Things could get even better for San Mig. With two first round picks at Nos. 2 and 10 in the Nov. 3 PBA Rookie Draft,  the Mixers should strengthen an already potent lineup that will even be welcoming back Allein Maliksi in the coming season that starts Nov. 17.

And Cone would have more to spread the credit to. (NC)

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