MANILA, Philippines — Recharged after a relatively long five-day breather in the PBA Governors’ Cup, TNT guns for a safe passage to the quarterfinals today against lowly Terrafirma in the penultimate day of eliminations at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Despite early struggles and a lung-busting schedule due to Gilas Pilipinas duties, the Tropang Giga (5-4) have put themselves in good position to advance to the quarterfinals and earn the coveted twice-to-beat advantage.
The reigning Philippine Cup champs can complete its drive for one of the top four slots with victories over the Dyip (2-8) and their final elims opponent, resurgent NorthPort (5-5), on Friday.
Coach Chot Reyes and his streaking charges, however, aren’t looking past the 3 p.m. encounter with the Dyip, out of it all but still motivated to end their campaign with a bang.
“We’re not thinking of that (twice-to-beat). Our entire focus now is preparing for our game tomorrow (today),” said Reyes.
The Tropang Giga amped up their playoffs bid with back-to-back conquests of San Miguel Beer (96-81) and Barangay Ginebra (119-92) to cap a draining four-game slate prior to Gilas’ stint in the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifiers in late February.
TNT resumed its PBA campaign last March 4 and made it three in a row at the expense of Blackwater (106-93).
Mikey Williams led TNT with 23 points, six rebounds and four steals in the win over the Bossing, where he and Reyes had an argument in the endgame. Reyes had since downplayed the exchange as “a very normal part of our culture.”
Reyes noted that the Tropang Giga didn’t play “a full 48-minute game at the level we wanted” in their return match. And they need to get this done against a Terrafirma side that has shown it is capable of upsetting the favorites, if only it could muster the needed finishing kick.
“If we can hold on hanggang sa dulo this time, siguro naman kaya namin itawid,” said Dyip mentor John Cardel, whose wards held sizable leads against Alaska, Ginebra and NorthPort before fading in the end.
Meanwhile, top meets bottom as Magnolia (9-1) and Blackwater (0-10) face off at 6 p.m. in a game that may be inconsequential to their standings but has everything to do with pride.
Aside from building momentum for the Last-8, the No. 1-seeded Hotshots want to avoid the ignominy of losing to the Bossing, who are out to end their league-worst 29-game losing streak.