By REYNALD MAGALLON
TNT head coach Chot Reyes was under no illusion that the PBA Season 49 Philippine Cup Finals against San Miguel would become a cake walk and that was exactly what transpired in Game 1 on Sunday, July 13.
In fact, the Tropang Giga barely dodged the bullet in the series opener after getting a huge break in the waning seconds when the PBA technical committee rescinded a Mo Tautuaa basket late, allowing TNT to come through with a 99-96 escape.
TNT got a huge boost from the comebacking RR Pogoy, who fired 23 points in just 18 minutes of play, and Jordan Heading, who exploded for 17 of his 19 points in the first half to give TNT the largest lead at 24, 67-43 late in the third.
The Beermen, however, came back roaring behind 19 unanswered points to take the lead, 93-92 in the last two minutes.
“We expected it. We had no illusions that San Miguel would just roll down, roll and lay down,” Reyes commented on SMB’s furious fourth quarter comeback.
“We knew that they were going to mount a fightback and we kept talking to our players about it during the break, during half timeouts. When they were making a run, we kept telling the players to just relax, stay calm,” he added.
Reyes, however, was the first to admit that the game shouldn’t have gone the way it happened, if TNT managed to stay sharp on both ends of the floor.
The veteran mentor said he expected that the law of averages would eventually catch up with TNT especially after a scintillating shooting in the first half that saw them shoot nine triples and three fours but the bigger issue for him was the their 15 turnovers that fueled SMB’s run
“That’s what you call the law of averages, right? But still, our shots were not going in, but they were good looks. That’s what we say on our team. As long as we get good looks, we can live with that,” said Reyes.
“What we could not live with were our turnovers. That’s what fueled the run.
They got, what, 20 points of turnovers from us. That’s a huge difference,” he added.
