AFTER a rock solid opener for the franchise in the PBA Season 50 Philippine Cup, Titan Ultra has struggled to stay up since then.
This comes after getting blown out by TNT, 130-92 on Friday at the Ynares Center in Antipolo City for the Giant Risers’ third straight loss – also the third straight game they gave up over 127 in a ball game.
READ: Galinato career game highlights TNT romp over misfiring Titan
But as frustrating as things may be, Joshua Munzon is keeping a positive demeanor despite the string of bad losses over the past three games.
“It takes time. Everything takes time. Even last season when we made our run with NorthPort, it took time for us to build that,” he said.
“We still have a lot of younger guys that haven't gotten a lot of minutes and are now playing a lot of minutes. Now, we’re trying to figure all that out. Like I said, learning on the fly, building that chemistry, it’s tough.”
While Munzon’s been with the squad for a long time alongside the likes of Fran Yu and Cade Flores, the same can't be said for most of their core – including Calvin Abueva and Jerrick Balanza, who came in a late conference trade last season, to new faces like Ato Ular, Von Pessumal, and Jeo Ambohot and rookies Chris Koon and Mario Barasi.
That’s why as bad as these losses have been, the former first overall pick isn’t about to throw in the towel just yet.
“A lot of these teams have more time together than us and it’s showing out there. Other than our first game, it’s been really tough for us, but I mean, we’re playing really good teams, teams that are well-coached, a lot of guys on their team that play both ends on the floor. We just got to keep on truckin 'and try to get better game by game,” he said.
“These teams have more than four games together than us. They have a longer time to play in a lot more games to prepare for the season. We’re learning on the fly and doing the best we can.”
Munzon keeps it up for Titan Ultra
Munzon’s been easily the most consistent player in this Titan Ultra squad, posting averages of 23.2 points per game in four games. He finished with 20 in the blowout loss to the Tropang 5G.
But while he’s scoring a whole lot these days, the Fil-Am forward knows none of that matters until they learn how to make stops after giving up a whopping 128.6 points per game over their past three losses.
“I’m trying to. I’m definitely trying to lead by example not just on offense, but on defense also. But we’ve given up 120, 130, 120 almost every game, it’s hard to win like that. We have to figure it out on defense first,” he said.
“Me personally, trying to take on more [responsibility] in trying to help everybody, not just myself, do winning plays not just on offense, but on defense too.”
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