Games Today
(Cuneta Astrodome)
4:15 p.m. – Blackwater vs Rain or Shine
7 p.m. – TNT KaTropa vs Alaska
The Elasto Painters take on the Blackwater Elite at 4:15 p.m. before TNT KaTropa and Alaska Aces meet at 7 p.m. as they seek to end the year on the bright note and enter 2018 with a winning feeling.
A victory would put Rain or Shine in a joint share of first place with defending champion San Miguel and NLEX, which both won their first two games of the conference.
Rain or Shine opened the season with an 81-78 victory over TNT exactly a week ago at the same venue.
Coach Caloy Garcia, however, said there’s still room for improvement after TNT nearly forced overtime with some late threes from Jayson Castro and Kelly Williams.
“I think our team was built to run, but against TNT, masyadong madaming turnovers and we could have controlled the boards better,” Garcia, who will rely on center Raymond Almazan, Gabe Norwood, Chris Tiu, Ed Daquioag and rookie Rey Nambatac while James Yap is questionable after suffering a muscle spasm.
TNT coach Nash Racela rued a rough first half he felt left his team playing catch-up the rest of the way.
“We were able to minimize our mistakes, but we need to shoot at a better percentage,” Racela said. “We took 102 attempts and only made 30 percent of those.”
Alaska had no answer for Magnolia last Dec. 20 at the Filoil Flying V Centre as it fell 108-95 despite a solid debut for rookie Jeron Teng, who had 16 points.
Fellow neophyte Raymar Jose also scored 16 points in his first PBA game but that became an afterthought after Blackwater lost a 12-point second quarter lead before falling short on a comeback attempt in the 103-98 defeat to Meralco.
