TNT may have finally found its next gear in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup, and it couldn’t have come at a better time for coach Chot Reyes and his squad’s title defense.
For a team that had looked beatable and inconsistent in the elimination round due to their over-reliance on 7-3 Bol Bol, the Tropang 5G's locals have finally found their rhythm to complement their star import.
While Bol was still his dominant self in their 94-89 win over the Meralco Bolts, it was the combination of Jordan Heading and Calvin Oftana which allowed the Tropang 5G to take control of the game for good.
Like in their closeout win over twice-to-beat NLEX in the quarterfinals, three locals breached double-digits led by RR Pogoy who had 21, and Heading and Oftana who finished with 16 and 14 respectively.
For Reyes, it truly boils down to health – something that they have right now.
“We were struggling the entire conference trying to find that combination and balance. But remember, we were never really fully healthy during the eliminations,” Reyes said.
“We didn’t have a fully healthy Pogoy, we were managing his minutes. Jordan missed a couple of games. We missed Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser for a couple of games. We weren’t able to put the line-up that we wanted together,” he continued.
“Fortunately as the eliminations wound down, we got Roger back to 100 percent healthy. What we’re seeing now is we’re finally going to be able to put the combinations that we want to put together.”
Reyes also praised Heading for stepping up offensively, especially with the Bolts zeroing in on Oftana for most parts of the game.
“They did a great job defending Calvin [Oftana]. We all know how good a defender Chris Newsome is so they put him on Calvin, later in the game, they put Cliff Hodge on Calvin, so it was important that we have another guy stepping up,” Reyes said.
“Normally, that’s either Rey [Nambatac], Jayson [Castro] or Jordan. When we get another scorer aside from Roger and Calvin, it really helps our offense, it helps the flow of our game, and when we’re scoring well it also energizes our defense.”
While Reyes has his potent offensive line-up composed of Bol, Oftana, Pogoy, Heading, Nambatac and Castro back, the success of this combination all boils down to the effort of their key guys on the defensive end.
"That’s a line-up that we like going to because it’s hard to match and defend that line-up. As you can see they were forced to put Clif Hodge on Calvin and Jones on Bol, those are certain match-ups that we like.
"When we have that line-up, the other end of the floor, that line-up will only work if we can defend and rebound.”
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