Ginebra moves within two more wins of first PBA title in three years

Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings’ Justin Brownlee during Game 3 vs TNT Tropang 5G in the 2026 PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals. –PBA IMAGES

Needing to step up big in a critical game in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals, Justin Brownlee delivered like he always does.

Brownlee’s 41 points on Sunday night drove the Gin Kings to a 116-102 win that put them 2-1 up over defending champion TNT in the best-of-seven series before a season record 18,000 fans at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay.

“We just want to come out here with a lot of energy and show these fans that we got that ‘NSD’ spirit,” Brownlee said after a typical title game performance as Ginebra moved two wins shy of capturing a first title since the 2022-23 edition of the same conference.

But his big-time showing that came after knocking down 16 of 21 shots on top of seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals was one of two great efforts that had the crowd-darlings moving a nose ahead in the series.

Ginebra finally saw Stephen Holt get going on offense with 23 points spiked by five triples and one four-pointer.

Holt made 18 of those points in the first-half when Ginebra relied on its hot shooting that left TNT playing catch up the rest of the way. During that stretch, Holt hit all of his four three-point attempts.

“It’s a long series, and the mission is the championship,” Holt said. “Whether it’s four good games or four bad games, it doesn’t matter as long as we get those four wins.

“I was happy that I was able to step up for my team and set the tone in the first quarter and build off. Me personally and as a group, we definitely feel confident.”

It was a huge turnaround for the two-way guard, who could only muster a total of one point during the first two games of the series.

His exploits became the launch pad for Brownlee and Ginebra in making up for a miserable Game 2 defeat when it trailed by 22 points before going on a failed comeback in the dying minutes.

“He set the tone for us, offensively,” Brownlee said of Holt. “But he’s consistently been one of the guys defending the best player on the other team. And like he said, we didn’t notice he was struggling.”

Coach Tim Cone, who, while acknowledging the criticisms hurled at Holt online, felt that it wasn’t the case as he saw it.

“I know there’s a lot of internet noise about him not playing well, but he’s been playing great,” Cone said in defense of Holt. “I think if you’re just looking at Stephen strictly as a scorer, you’re not looking at the whole game of basketball.

“He’s a lot more than just being a scorer and he impacts winning in so many things that he does, even when he was not scoring a lot,” Cone went on. “He looks at the game and says ‘this is what I need to contribute.’ Sometimes it’ll be scoring, sometimes it’ll be being a ball-mover, sometimes it’ll be spreading it out.

“He’ll do what it takes to impact winning, whether it’ll be rebounding, defending (RR) Pogoy or (Calvin) Oftana every night. So he’s contributing to winning.” INQ