GAME TOMORROW
(Smart Araneta Coliseum)
7:30 p.m. – SMB vs. Ginebra
TNT coach Chot Reyes raised his right fist and pointed to the good-sized Tropang 5G faithful after the final buzzer sounded last Sunday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Expect perhaps their inner circle, only a few would have put their money on TNT reaching the Big Dance of the season’s third and final conference after a wobbly 0-3 start in the PBA Philippine Cup.
But that belief—no matter how small—allowed the flagship team of the MVP Group to keep a long-cherished goal of winning the rare Triple Crown.
“Just keeping our eyes on the prize. We said, even after that bad start, all we wanted was to give ourselves a chance. Our objective after a 0-3 start was just to get to the playoffs,” Reyes said. “We were not even thinking of getting a twice-to-beat advantage, we just wanted to get to the playoffs and we just figured whoever it is that we need to beat twice, then so be it.
“That’s the first thing, we kept our eyes on the prize. No. 2, we just came together and we always have that saying on our team, when adversity strikes, sometimes we have a tendency to go our own way, and I said, it’s the opposite. When adversity strikes, we have to play as a team more, we have to battle adversity with our teammanship and teamwork,” he added.
Reyes spoke after his charges got the job done via a 97-89 victory over the gritty Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in Game 6 of their best-of-7 semifinals duel.
After wrapping up the race-to-4 series 4-2, TNT will wait for the victor of the Ginebra-San Miguel Beer semis battle set for Game 7 tomorrow at also at the Big Dome.
The finals opener is slated for Sunday, July 13.
Fil-Aussie playmaker Jordan Heading shone anew for the Tropang 5G with 29 points, he paired with three rebounds, and four assists while Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser chipped in 17 markers, five boards, and two dimes.
Glenn Khobuntin, Kim Aurin, and Calvin Oftana also had 16, 13, and 12 points, respectively for TNT which atoned for a 97-113 setback in the fifth tiff last week.
His team ravaged by injuries like on stars Jayson Castro (knee), Rey Nambatac (groin and hip), Roger Pogoy (hamstring), and Kelly Williams (ankle) Reyes will bank on one key trait of the Tropang 5G in the finals—grit.
“That’s what happened. Everyone chipped in, stepped up. We went on a six-game winning streak and then we had to go through, like I said, we had to beat somebody twice to get here,” he said.
“Unfortunately, we got all those injuries. But as you saw, these guys, they do not know the meaning of quit. They just keep fighting.”
Eleven years since San Mig Coffee bagged the elusive treble, TNT’s trying to achieve the same and the Tropang 5G will die trying.
