The TNT Tropang Giga resumed their PBA Commissioner’s Cup campaign with a huge 101-99 win over the Meralco Bolts on Tuesday, building a huge lead before fighting off the pesky Philippine Cup champs.
For coach Chot Reyes, the hard-fought triumph couldn’t have come at a better time as his team is scheduled to play the red-hot Converge FiberXers tomorrow at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
“We wanted to start strong because we thought this would be a good springboard for the rest of our conference,” Reyes said after TNT’s win over Meralco. We’re going to come up and play a team that’s playing very well, at a very high level. I’m glad we were able to this game, this W, but we have to play much better if we’re going to we are able to compete against Converge.”
TNT Is Up Against a Very Formidable Challenge
But Converge isn’t just red-hot. It is also a team teeming with talent. In fact, Reyes sees the FiberXers as a complete team already with great players at every spot. No wonder they are riding high on a four-game winning streak and are second in the team standings at 5-2.
“They have three really good guards—Schonny [Winston], [Jordan] Heading, and [Alec] Stockton,” added Reyes. “Kumpleto sila. They have those wings in [Kevin] Racal and even Mike Nieto. Then their big man lineup in [Justine] Baltazar and [Justin] Arana, and they have an import [Cheick Diallo] they love playing with and fits their game perfectly. Kumpleto, very deep, and well-balanced team. We have our work cut out for us in our next game.”
TNT Gets Additional Reinforcement Just in Time vs. Converge
In particular, the towering frontcourt of Converge—Arana, Baltazard, and Diallo—is likely to give Reyes and TNT lots of problems. But at least they are getting back their own reliable big in the ageless Kelly Williams, whom Reyes revealed has been practicing with TNT already.
“It’s good that Kelly’s here already. We didn’t use him today because he’s only had three practices pero wala pa siyang full scrimmage. We’ll have the next couple of days to get Kelly back into the scheme of things because we’ll definitely need him against Converge,” Reyes said, also in the same presser.
Indeed, the Tropa will no doubt need to bring their “A” game on Saturday if they are to upend the upstart FiberXers.
Game time is at 5:00 p.m. tomorrow at Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
