ONE would think a five-game winning streak is enough reason for TNT to feel giddy.
Not for coach Chot Reye, who said NLEX gave the Tropang Giga fits despite scoring a 94-87 victory in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup last Wednesday night.
“We had no illusions that this would be an easy game. We knew this was going to be a hard game because NLEX is really basically fighting for survival so we anticipated it,” Reyes said. “We knew that we had to do the job on Kevin Alas because historically, Kevin has always played a career game against TNT and that’s exactly what happened. Without (Robert) Bolick, it was Alas who was really carrying the team. So we weren’t surprised at how hard it was.
“I give credit to the coaching staff, (NLEX) coach Jong (Uichico), that they came up with a very good defensive game plan, took away a lot of the things that we wanted to do, and we shot very poorly in this ballgame, below 40 percent,” he added.
Two-time best import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson uncorked 23 points, 14 rebounds, seven assists, and three blocks for TNT while Roger Pogoy added 18 markers.
Calvin Oftana also had 14 for the Tropang Giga who rose to 5-2 but their effort left a lot to be desired, according to Reyes.
“I thought that we took too long. I thought we were taking it a little bit too easy at the start, especially when we saw that Bolick wasn’t starting. Thankfully, we recovered towards the end.
“But still, the way we finished the game leaves me very disappointed. It’s something that we have to talk about as a team as well.”
With star gunner Robert Bolick playing despite nursing a viral stomach infection, the Road Warriors dropped to 3-6.
Reinforcement Mike Watkins scored 33 points and grabbed 20 rebounds while Alas contributed 16 markers. Bolick had four points on 2-of-5 shooting.
Reyes said he wants to see a better TNT side today when it faces Ginebra in a marquee tiff at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.
“Huge game for us but the one thing I’m sure of is if we play this way, we cannot win. We have to play a lot better than we played tonight. So, the problem is we have one day off. We’ll basically walk through stuff at practice, talk about Ginebra, and they’re going to be pretty well-rested. But that’s a good challenge. It’s a good challenge for us to have,” he said. “Like I said, I never sell these players short. They always get up and they always fight in the tough games.
“So as a coach, my job is really to make sure that they’re recovering well. The rest of the recovery is going to be very important to get the next man up.”