Tim Cone and the rest of the Ginebra Gin Kings are keeping their fingers crossed that Isaac Go’s injury he incurred in their PBA Season 49 Governors' Cup match against Rain or Shine is nothing serious.
Bittersweet.
This was how coach Tim Cone described Brgy. Ginebra’s 124-102 revenge victory over Rain or Shine in the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup on Friday, Sept. 13.
While the Gin Kings scored a reversal of their 64-73 loss to the Elasto Painters last Aug. 24, Ginebra saw one of its men go down with an injury.
New addition Isaac Go left the court prematurely after hurting his right knee as he tried to contest a three-pointer by Rain or Shine super rookie Felix Lemetti with still 3:32 left in the opening period.
Teammate Ben Adamos and Gin Kings assistant coach Richard del Rosario had to help carry Go back to the bench at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.
Cone later said they don’t know the severity of the injury yet.
“First of all, the win was a little bit bittersweet because we don’t know how Isaac Go is at this point,” Cone said after the game.
“We don’t know the severity of his injury, some kind of knee injury. We don’t know the severity of it. That makes this one very bittersweet.”
He added: “Kind of like we won the battle, but we lost the war. Losing Isaac, he’s a very big part of what we’re trying to build.”
Such was a big blow for Ginebra, especially with its gigantic clash against San Miguel coming up on Sunday, Sept. 15.
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Match is at 7:30 p.m. at the same venue.
“San Miguel, I would say, we escaped with a win the last time we played them,” Cone said.
“Now we’re coming off a win [against Rain or Shine], so we’re hoping to see if we could find that same intensity level coming in playing against San Miguel.”
[ALSO READ: PBA: 'Unfortunately, it backfired' | San Miguel coach Jorge Gallent explains previous decision to replace now comebacking import Jordan Adams]
While it is still uncertain whether Go will be out for a while or not, Cone is now looking at sparingly used big Raymond Aguilar as well as new Gin King Ben Adamos to fill the void.
“If he’s out for a while, we’re going to reconstruct our rotation… Raymond, I think, could play some valuable minutes. He knows our system; he knows what we do. He’s a physical type of player, so he could play a role for us,” said Cone.
“Ben is still trying to find his way a little bit, but we think he can step in as well. Not as well as Isaac can at this point, but, if we need him to step in, we think we can get some valuable minutes from him.”