Playing with gung-ho killer instinct all night long, Barangay Ginebra just tilted the war of wills with San Mig Coffee in its favor.

Dominating practically all aspects of Game 2 of their PBA Philippine Cup Final Four series, the Gin Kings pummelled the Mixers black-and-blue Friday night with a 93-64 victory not only tying it up at 1-1 but also giving Ginebra the psychological edge it needs.

Egged on by a crowd of close to 20,000 at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, the crowd-darling Kings were unrelenting right from the get-go, with the 7-foot Greg Slaughter leading them to several double digit leads early for the comfortable win.

“I think we made the right adjustments and our defense was great,” Ginebra coach Ato Agustin said. “Limiting them to 60-plus points is a great achievement and a good sign for us.”

So porous was the Ginebra defense that it allowed the Mixers to score 20 or more points in just the third quarter.

But the damage of having to play catch-up for most of the night was obviously too much for the Mixers to handle as Ginebra raced to leads of as large as 25 points early in the fourth.

San Mig, which won Game 1 in high-wire style, 85-83 on Tuesday, didn’t reach 60 points until there were less than three minutes left in the fourth. Ginebra already had 69 at the end of the third period.

Slaughter was a dominating presence underneath, scoring almost at will on dunks and short jumpers to finish with 21 points that went with 12 rebounds. And because the game had already been decided as early as the third, this year’s top overall Draft pick was played for just 27 minutes by Agustin.

LA Tenorio also got a breather after playing for also 27 minutes but still finished with 10 points and eight assists. Japeth Aguilar was also not extended, playing just a minute longer.

“My second unit also did its job,” Agustin said. “And that gave my starters precious rest for Game 3.”

The pivotal third game is scheduled Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay even as Rain or Shine, the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, guns for a commanding 3-0 lead over Petron Blaze Saturday also at the Arena.

That game is slated at 3:30 p.m. with the Elasto Painters heavily tipped to make it three straight and up their season-best mark to 11 straight wins.

Rain or Shine has had an answer to the Boosters in the first two games of the series, holding June Mar Fajardo down when they need to.

In Game 2, the Painters came charging back from as many as 13 points down in the third quarter to nip the Boosters and another win on Saturday would put Petron in a position where no team in PBA history has ever come back from.

“This is definitely a must-win game for us,” Petron’s Gee Abanilla said.

Paul Lee, Gabe Norwood, Jeff Chan and Ryan Arana have all stepped up big time to help the Painters dominate the guards match-up, with Alex Cabagnot and Chris Lutz not playing as consistently as they could.