Cone wants SMB-Purefoods series to go the distance

source: gmanews.tv

Alaska coach Tim Cone wouldn’t say whether he prefers facing Purefoods or San Miguel in the KFC-PBA Philippine Cup Finals.

Cone said that all he is wishing for is the best-of-seven semifinals series between the Giants and Beermen to go the distance.

"Honestly, I hope that it (SMB-Purefoods series) goes into a Game 7," said Cone with a smile. "It will give us a couple of days to refresh. Those teams give us tough match-ups. We’re not going into that series feeling confident."

The Aces earned a return trip to the All-Filipino finals Wednesday night with a 102-95 win over Barangay Ginebra for a 4-0 sweep of their own semis series – Cone’s first ever best-of-seven sweep.

The sweep is only the fourth in a PBA best-of-seven series after Northern Consolidated first did it against Manila Beer in the 1985 Reinforced Conference; Swift against Seven-Up in the 1992 Third Conference; and Ginebra against Red Bull in the semi-finals of the 2008 Fiesta Conference.

Cone said he himself couldn’t believe that the Aces were able to sweep a team as talented as the Kings.

"Who would have thought we could do this? From the very start we were sharp and never lost a thing along the way, which is quite unusual." said Cone. "We were fresh, we were hungry, every player I picked from the bench played well."

"We came into the Ginebra series very fortunate. Celino (Cruz) and (Eric) Menk have injuries. But they kind of got back on their heels but never recovered. It’s an incredible feat," added Cone.

The American mentor could only cross his fingers that his Aces would be able to sustain their fighting form through the finals as they try to win the crown that slipped out of their hands last year opposite the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters.

"I hope we can play similar basketball (in the Finals)," he said. – GMANews.TV

Game Friday (Araneta Coliseum)
7 p.m. — San Miguel vs Purefoods