The TNT Tropang Giga opened their championship trilogy against Barangay Ginebra San Miguel with a dominant 95-89 victory at the Mall of Asia Arena to take a 1-0 lead in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals.
Ginebra actually raced out to an early 9-3 lead, but TNT tied it up quickly with back-to-back triples from Kelly Williams. Then, the Tropa took the lead for good, 17-14, on an RR Pogoy trey—the second of what would be three consecutive long bombs. TNT finished the first half with a 55-39 advantage largely on the heels of their red-hot three-point shooting and the scoring of import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.
Good Shooting Could Spell the Difference in this Series
Scoring, it turns out, could very well decide the outcome of this championship series. After all, as TNT coach Chot Reyes pointed out in Game 1’s postgame presser, basketball is about putting the ball in the hole.
“In the end, like Rondae [Hollis-Jefferson] said, we can play all the defense we want, but the game is still about putting the ball in the hoop. It’s still about scoring points,” Reyes told the media after the Tropa’s Game 1 triumph. “The key is for us to get good shots. As long as we keep consistently getting good shots, some will fall, some will not. But at least the entire objective of our offense is to get good shots.”
Indeed, the Tropa got good shots—many coming off kickouts from an ultra-aggressive RHJ, who kept hitting midrange pull-ups to score a game-high 34. His teammates, meanwhile, hit just enough open threes, first to build a big lead in the first half and to keep Ginebra at bay in the second half.,
“I think that’s what you saw. When they weren’t helping too much on Rondae, he was getting his points. Then, when they [started] started helping on Rondae, it opened up the others. Kim [Aurin] made a three, Glenn [Khobuntin] made a couple, Rey [Nambatac] made a couple, aside of course from Roger [Pogoy] and Calvin [Oftana]. Hopefully, we can sustain that. That’s the shooting we need,” Reyes point out further.
Good Shooting + Great Defense Equal TNT Championship?
Reyes makes a valid point. The ethos of hoops is to score more, and shooting well can help in that regard. In the case of TNT, good shooting will only make the Tropa near unbeatable given the way they defend.
Elite defense, of course, has been the Tropa’s calling card in Season 49. In this Commissioner’s Cup, they held their opponents to just 94 points per game in the eliminations—second only to Ginebra’s 91 OPPG—after leading the league last conference. Then, in Game 1, that defense was as stout as ever and was complimented by Pogoy and company’s hot shooting.
Good shooting and great defense. That’s the potent combination that gave TNT the Game 1 win.
It could be the same potent combo that could give the Tropa another championship.
