REY Nambatac expected to be under Barangay Ginebra's radar since going crazy offensively in his first game in the finals of the PBA Governors Cup.
Come Game 3, the roof finally caved in on the TNT guard as the Kings shackled Nambatac and held him to his lowest output so far in the best-of-seven title series.
The 30-year-old guard from Letran finished with only two points on 1-of-7 shooting as his offensive woes compounded the Tropang Giga’s 85-73 loss to the Kings.
TNT’s total output incidentally, was its lowest this conference since an 84-72 upset at the hands of Terrafirma during the group stage last Sept. 19.
Nambatac gave credit to the adjustment Barangay Ginebra made against TNT especially in foiling the Tropang Giga’s outside shooting.
“Hindi kami maka-convert sa outside and yun ang pinaka-malaking factor dun,” he said of the loss.
At the same time, Nambatac stressed he needs to adjust on the kind of defense being made on him by the Kings.
“Nakikita ko naman (yung depensa) kaya lang hindi ko pa totally ma-polished. So coming into Game 4, makuha ko na yung strategy nila,” he said.
“They did a great job of defending me. Ganun naman talaga kapag series. It’s all about adjustment. Game of adjustments talaga yan.”
READ: Ginebra comes back to life on 'Undas' with Game 3 win over TNT
“Afterall, tao lang din naman kami. Ganun talaga e nai-scout ka minsan. Kumbaga pinag-aaralan din tayo,” Nambatac added.
“For me it’s a challenge also, para mas lalo pang pag-igihan and pag-aralan kung ano pa yung possible tendencies na puwede kong ipang-counter sa kanila.”
If there’s a positive take in the loss, according to Nambatac, TNT was in the game until the final five minutes when it began to misfire its shots, allowing Ginebra to finally pull away.
“Andun kami sa game, last seven, five minutes ng fourth. Kaya lang ang dami naming open shots na hindi namin ma-convert,” he said.
“Yun talaga ang parang X-factor. If we hit those outside shots especially sa later part ng fourth quarter, baka mag-iba pa yung laro. Kasi we couldn’t get our momentum all the way. Yan talaga ang end of story ng game na ito.’
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