By REYNALD MAGALLON
ANTIPOLO – One portion of the audience, covered with yellow at the Ynares Center was about to burst with chants of ‘uwian na’ after Ginebra head coach Tim Cone was forced to call a timeout when TNT stretched its lead to 20 late in the final frame.
But even before they cheered, Poi Erram, standing at the end of the Tropang Giga bench during that timeout, signaled to their fans and waved off the cheers.
The fans’ reaction was understandable. It was Game 1 after all. But was also only Game 1 for TNT
And perhaps not only for Erram, but the entire squad knew that there was nothing to celebrate yet even after a rousing 104-88 win over the Kings.
For head coach Chot Reyes, it was already hard stifling a great team like Ginebra, once. And doing it twice in a row will be a far greater task.
“They’re an outside shooting team, eh. They rely a lot on their three-point shooting. And there are days when it’s going to be their off. But that’s not going to be everyday, that’s why I said we have to be prepared for the next game because we know hindi palaging ganiyan,” said Reyes.
Defense remained to be the name of the game for TNT and while their hot-shooting was in full display in the opening minutes of Game 1, it was their defense that really set the tone.
“We know the strengths of Ginebra. We’re a data-driven team so we look at the numbers and we focused on that—taking away their strengths and making sure that we lean on what our strength really is, which is our ability to stop teams, to play defense,” said Reyes after limiting the Kings, the league-best three-point shooting team, to a measly 2-of-21 clip.
“There’s no secret to our game, it’s really our defense,” he added.
The benefit of the long preparation also served well for the Tropang Giga, not only on the defensive end but also on the offense.
Guys like Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Rey Nambatac and Jayson Castro read the Kings’ defense like a book and easily dissected with different points of attacks.
Castro had 12 of his 14 points in the third – most came by attacking the defense of RJ Abarrientos while Nambatac also had 12 of his 18 in the fourth through kickout passes and attacking the closeouts.
“They make those calls, we really don’t run too many plays. We read and react and we look for advantages in the game,” Reyes said of their crisp offense.
“I always tell the players: they are the strategy. Whatever happens inside the court, they will be the ones to make the adjustment. Sila ‘yung mag-a-adjust, sila yung magpi-pivot, sila yung magka-counter,” he stressed.
