For the TNT Tropang 5G, winning in the PBA is all about DNA.
And in TNT’s win against the Magnolia Hotshots on Saturday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, that DNA proved crucial in giving the Tropa enough of a cushion to withstand the Hotshots’ furious charge back from 27 points down.
In this case, DNA stands for “Defense Is Never Absent.”
“Our outside shooting, if it’s there, then it’s a big bonus for us. But our identity is on our defense,” Reyes told reporters in the aftermath of the Tropa’s semis-clinching victory over Magnolia. “On our board, that’s what we reminded the players. We wrote on our board, ‘DNA—defense is never absent.’ I thought we played tremendous defense in the first half, but then in the second half we gave up 60-plus points. It’s a good thing we had a cushion. But the better we play at defense, then I think it gives us more energy and more openings for our outside shooting.”
TNT Defense Was Present—and Then It Wasn’t
Reyes was right. Defense wasn’t absent for TNT for much of the first half. In fact, the Tropa played suffocating defense for the first 20 minutes or so of that Saturday game at Araneta, limiting Magnolia to just 22 points and a ton of missed, contested shots. That stingy defense, coupled with a red-hot offense, allowed TNT to erect a humongous 27-point lead, 49–22.
Then TNT’s defense began to loosen up. From the time the Tropa pushed their lead up until the final buzzer, Reyes’s wards gave up 87 total points to Magnolia—19 in the Hotshots’ 19–3 finishing kick in the first half and 68 in the second half alone. That slip-up on defense allowed Magnolia to creep up on TNT, getting as close as six points a couple of times in the third and fourth quarters.
TNT fended off Magnolia’s fightback, all right. But the Tropa slipping on defense after building a big lead is a harsh reminder of what their championship identity really is: It’s DNA.
