TNT brushes off revenge angle

Games today:

(Ninoy Aquino Stadium)

5 p.m. — NorthPort vs Terrafirma

7:30 p.m. — TNT vs Converge

TNT’s lone blemish in the opening round came at the hands of Converge in the most painful way possible — a quadruple in the dying seconds.

So, it’s all but natural to think that the Tropang Giga will come into their rematch in Group A of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup today at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium looking for payback.

Head coach Chot Reyes, however, downplays the revenge angle.

He would rather see his wards take the match as an important game in their drive for a playoffs seat.

“You can’t avoid that (payback talks). That’s unavoidable. (But) we don’t approach games that way,” Reyes said of TNT’s second round rematch set at 7:30 p.m.

“We approach games as they are. We see the opponents in front of us. We study what our best options are offensively and we study how to defend them in the best way possible. We keep it there.”

The Tropang Giga saw themselves on the wrong side of history after being on the receiving end of the league’s first-ever game won by a dagger four-pointer.

FiberXers import Scotty Hopson swished in the long bomb beyond 27 feet for the go-ahead basket before putting on a defensive gem by blocking TNT’s Rondae Hollis-Jefferson to seal the 96-95 victory last 27 August.

For Reyes, that loss is all in the past now.

“We have no other extra motivation or thinking we have a chip on our shoulders except to say it is an important ball game for us. We want to make sure we’re ready to give our best effort,” he said.

Besides, the Tropang Giga racked up back-to-back wins to end the first round with a 4-1 win-loss record on top of the standings.

TNT only needs at least two wins to secure a quarters seat.

“We want to win. We got to do what we have to do. Listen to our coaches, going over the little things, learning from our mistakes the last time we played them,” Hollis-Jefferson said.

“Staying focused for 48 minutes. The game isn’t over until it’s over. So, I feel that if we do that we’ll be in a good bubble.”

Converge, on the other hand, has lost its last two matches after upsetting TNT.

The FiberXers ended the first round with a 2-3 slate tied with NorthPort.

Meanwhile, the Batang Pier try to arrest a two-game slide in a showdown with winless Terrafirma at 5 p.m.

NorthPort seeks a repeat of its 112-93 win over the Dyip, winless in five starts, last 23 August.