MANILA, Philippines -- Barangay Ginebra did not play according to their usual standards on Sunday, when they lost to the Magnolia Hotshots in the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup.

This, according to Ginebra head coach Tim Cone who lamented the lack of energy shown by his team, as well as the "pretty terrible" defense that they played throughout the contest.

The Gin Kings looked poised to end a three-game losing streak in the Manila Clasico after winning back-to-back games to open the conference, while Magnolia was playing a third game in five nights and were without veterans Paul Lee and Rafi Reavis.

But the Hotshots emerged triumphant, holding on for an 89-84 win to extend their Clasico winning streak to four games. More importantly for Magnolia, they hiked their record to 2-3 and boosted their playoff hopes in the All-Filipino conference after a slow start to their campaign.

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"We didn't play very well the whole game," Cone said afterward. "I know they're coming off a loss and they were playing a little desperate but they just played harder than we did for 48 minutes."

Ginebra did erase a 14-point deficit and tied the game midway through the fourth quarter, but were out-played in crunch time. Buckets by Jio Jalalon and Aris Dionisio restored Magnolia's lead, and Rome dela Rosa knocked down the dagger triple with under two minutes to go before the Hotshots' defense frustrated Ginebra in the closing stretch.

"When it came down to the last two minutes, they were still playing harder and they were still playing with more energy than we were," said Cone.

"I just thought we didn't play with much energy tonight. They played harder than we did. We were slow on our rotations, they beat us up inside and they got a lot of penetration. So our defense was pretty terrible tonight," he added.

Magnolia shot 47.5% from the field, with Ian Sangalang going 11-of-17 en route to 24 points. The Hotshots were also able to hold on for the win despite losing Calvin Abueva to ejection with still over nine minutes to play.

Cone also lamented their inability to stop Jalalon, who had 19 points and six assists, and set up Dela Rosa for the three-pointer that iced the contest.

"That's our calling card: not giving up penetration and not giving up paint points and we got killed in the paint points," said the Ginebra coach. "We also took 30 threes, which is kind of out of character for us too."

"Give credit to their defense. They just played the game a lot harder and with more focus than we did tonight," he added.

Cone took responsibility for the result, admitting that Magnolia's Chito Victolero "coached their team much better than I did." Nonetheless, he also pointed out that this was only Ginebra's third game of the conference, and he is optimistic that the Gin Kings can recover.

"We weren't ready to play a tough, physical type game and they were," he said. "Hopefully, we'll learn some lessons from it and we'll come out better."

Ginebra will return to action on Wednesday against the NLEX Road Warriors, before taking on the San Miguel Beermen on Friday night.