MANILA, Philippines — Coming off close shaves and a relatively bland showing in the last three games, the TNT KaTropa look to bring back their old fiery form as they shoot for win No. 7 in the PBA Governors’ Cup tonight at Ynares Center in Antipolo.
The KaTropa barely survived the challenge of Meralco last Saturday (116-113) and prior to that, NorthPort (100-93) and Columbian Dyip (125-120), and coach Bong Ravena warned they may not dodge the bullet again if they don’t change their ways.
Assured of a quarters entry, the KaTropa are now in chase of a twice-to-beat playoff bonus.
“Our last three games were not really good. We have to play better especially on defense,” said Ravena ahead of their 7 p.m. showdown with rejuvenated Alaska (1-5).
The Aces may be languishing in the cellar but Ravena stressed their opponents are riding on a confidence-boosting 78-71 breakthrough win over Rain or Shine last week and historically, they’ve been a tough nut to crack for the TNT franchise,
“Alaska is coming off a big win and traditionally they always play so well against us. So we have to be aware of everything tomorrow (tonight),” said the TNT mentor.
For his part, Alaska counterpart Jeff Cariaso won’t get carried away by their maiden victory.
“I can’t say it’s the start of a turnaround. It’s hard. At this point, we just focus on the good things we did, especially our next game is against undefeated TNT which has a super import (KJ McDaniels), and they’re (the import and TNT locals) playing together. We just want to be better the way we performed from the last game so we have a chance against TNT,” said Cariaso.
Meanwhile, the Bolts (3-2) seek a bounce-back from that bungled opportunity against the KaTropa in the 4:30 p.m. opener against Blackwater (2-3).
“There are no moral victories in this game, you lose, you lose; you win , you win. But what we can do is focus on Blackwater. We went up against a TNT team that really played well, we hung in there, had the chance to send it to overtime but we came up short. But that won’t discourage us to get back to work in practice and get ready for Blackwater,” said Meralco’s Norman Black.
The Elite gun for a followup to their 95-89 win over import-less Magnolia and catch the Bolts, the Hotshots and the Dyip at No. 4.
“We would have to be at our best against Meralco,” said Blackwater’s Aris Dimaunahan.