Justin Brownlee admitted that he really intended to dunk the ball the moment he snatched it away from Chris Banchero late in Game Two of the 2021-22 PBA Governors’ Cup Finals between Ginebra and Meralco, Friday night.
“I was definitely going for that,” he said with a chuckle.
The Gin Kings were clinging on to a 94-91 lead with less than two minutes left to play, and the Bolts were keen on chipping that away further when Chris Banchero was able to collar the missed three-pointer of Scottie Thompson.
But as soon as he landed, Brownlee took the rock away from him. And the latter wasted no time turning the opportunity into gold, gathering quickly with one dribble before rising for the two-handed slam to widen the gap to five, 1:22 left.
The reigning champions went on to leave the Mall of Asia Arena with the 99-93 victory in the bag, levelling the series at one game apiece. And what Brownlee did, for head coach Tim Cone, was the ‘play of the game.’
“Justin, the steal on Banchero, was probably the play of the game.
“We had to make some spectacular plays down the stretch to win this game, and that’s the way a series is going to be,” said the 23-time champion mentor.
Brownlee said that he really ‘wanted to make a big play’ at that very moment, since the Barangay found it difficult to manage their rivals, who knocked to within two twice in the final minutes after being down 20 earlier.
“I wanted to make a big play,” the 33-year-old forward disclosed. “I know we were struggling up until that moment, so I was just trying to make a play for the team. But, yeah, I did go all out for it, yeah.”
It was quite a night for Brownlee all in all. The Best Import leader finished with 36 points on 12-of-18 shooting, bouncing back from that 7-of-20 outing in the opener. He also had 13 rebounds and nine assists in 45 minutes.
His outing, however, got clouded with uncertainty. Brownlee hurt his left ankle barely two minutes into the final period after landing on Cliff Hodge following a shot — the same ankle he hurt prior to flying back to the country last year.
But he allayed fears of a serious injury.
“It’s actually the same one. Initially, I thought it was worse than it was. Now it’s okay, though. Not too much pain. I think it’ll be okay,” said Brownlee, who was still able to make both free throws after that and never checked out.
The four-time champion was definitely glad about the victory but refuses to be in a celebratory mood, reminding that it is still a best-of-seven series and that they have to set their sights right away on Sunday’s Game Three.
“It’s not satisfying because we know we still have more work to do,” said Brownlee.
“That’s what we intended to do coming out today. We were trying to do whatever we could to try to series up and try to move from there.”
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