DEFENDING champion TNT has proven that it’s more than a Mikey Williams team and can also hurdle adversities after the departure of veteran playmaker Jayson Castro due to a sprained right ankle in the third quarter of the Big Dance’s crucial tiff last Wednesday night.
Now comes the hard part for the Tropang Giga — how to finish off the powerhouse San Miguel Beermen.
“I’ve always said it. The hardest game to win is the fourth game. We have no illusions about it. We know it’s going to be a battle, a huge, difficult war. So, we just have to be prepared,” TNT coach Chot Reyes said after his charges pulled off a gutsy 102-93 victory over SMB in Game 5.
“All we can do is to prepare, control the things that we can control and just be ready. We expected it to be difficult. We expected it to be tough and the next game is not gonna be any different,” he added.
The Tropang Giga try to seal the deal when they take on the Beermen tonight in Game 6 of their best-of-7 finals duel for the PBA Philippine Cup title at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The match is set at 5:45 p.m., with TNT raring to reach the Promised Land anew after winning it all in the same import-less tourney last year in Bacolor.
Bloodied but unbowed, SMB is out to forge a deciding game for the pro league’s crown jewel.
A no-tomorrow Game 7, if necessary, will be on Sunday also at the Big Dome.
With a towering SMB frontline led by prized center June Mar Fajardo hard to attack, Reyes pointed to the Tropang Giga’s outside shooting as they key that will spell the big difference.
“Our team is built on that. We put in a lot of work and effort on outside shooting, which is a function of our spacing and ball movement, and we take what the defense gives us. San Miguel does a good job clogging the lanes, taking away our penetration and our inside game,” Reyes said.
“For us to be able to solve it, we have to be able to hit from the outside and like what I’ve said I think we have shown in the past that we’re not a one-dimensional team. Tonight, our outside shots fell.”
Apart from Mikey Williams and with Castro doubtful, the likes of Kelly Williams, Roger Pogoy, JP Erram, Troy Rosario, and Glenn Khobuntin will be counted upon by TNT in its bid to annex a sixth all-Filipino diadem and ninth overall.
Fajardo, CJ Perez, Vic Manuel, Marcio Lassiter, Jericho Cruz, Mo Tautuaa, and Chris Ross will carry the fight for the Beermen.
SMB is aching to end a three-year dry spell since it ruled the Commissioner’s Cup in 2019.
