TNT faces the prospect of losing high-scoring guard Roger Pogoy for the remainder of the PBA Philippine Cup semifinals or even more, the finals should the team advances to the best-of-seven title series.
Pogoy injured his hamstring early in Game 4 on Sunday night and missed the rest of the match against Meralco which the Tropang 5G won, 102-83, at the Mall of Asia Arena.
READ TNT knocking on PBA Finals door after Game 4 romp over Meralco
The two-way guard came off the bench for coach Chot Reyes and came in at the 4:13 mark of the first quarter to replace Simon Enciso.
But soon after, he was down on the floor and favoring his hamstring, before being recalled to the bench in favor of Kevin Ferrer.
He never returned to the floor and sauited up for just 64 seconds.
Reyes admitted the prognosis was not that good.
“Hopefully it’s not too severe. But the way it looks, it’s not looking good,” said Reyes.
Pogoy scored 28 points for TNT in a Game 3 loss and is averaging 15.7 points – second highest for the team.
And the Tropang 5G didn’t have that benefit in the win that pushed them up in the best-of-seven series, 3-1.
TNT braces for worst
And Reyes said the team is bracing for the worst the rest of the playoffs.
“There’s no secret Roger is a big part of what we do offensively and defensively. He’s our best perimeter defensive player,” the TNT coach pointed out.
“And I said without a Roger the only way we’re going to win this game is through our defense and I think that’s what we did.”
The injury to Pogoy somehow evened things out with Meralco, which also played minus team captain Chris Newsome after he went down with a knee injury in Game 3.
But Reyes said the Tropang 5G will just have to roll with the punches as they try to close out the series in Wednesday’s Game 5 at the Smart Araneta Coliseum without Pogoy.
“It’s the next man up. Injuries are part of any kind of tournament, any kind of playoff run,” he added. “So we just have to continue to figure out ways and make adjustments.”
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