Chot: We’ll just continue fighting

Unless they intentionally skip Game 5 and call it quits, the TNT Tropang 5G have no choice but to keep on fighting and hope that luck will be on their side this time.

It’s not about the grand slam bid of TNT slowly slipping off its grip anymore, but a story of survival to fight another game in a best-of-seven Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup finals series that is already looking to be San Miguel Beer’s.

“We’ll just continue fighting. That’s all we can do,” Reyes said.

TNT is now in deep trouble after a controversial series-opening win.

The Tropang 5G have lost the next three games — the last two with an average losing margin of 17 points.

Game 5 today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum will determine if TNT has enough fuel — and will — left in its tank to fight off elimination and keep its flickering triple crown aspiration alive.

Reyes could only grit his teeth watching in horror as the Beermen unlocked the floodgate in a 41-point fourth quarter explosion in a pivotal 105-91 victory in Game 4 last Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Despite playing sans backup guard Simon Enciso due to a fractured orbital bone, he sustained in Game 3 and cold shooting from RR Pogoy and Calvin Oftana, the limp and battered Tropang 5G kept it close for three quarters.

Poy Erram returned from a one-game rest due to a high ankle sprain and provided the needed help for Kelly Williams and Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser to slow down 12-time Best Player of the Conference June Mar Fajardo. Jordan Heading found his mark especially in the third where TNT went up by three at the end of the quarter.

That was until San Miguel’s gunslinger Jericho Cruz connected three triples in a decisive run in the final period that allowed the deeply talented Beermen to pull away.

Only two teams in PBA history have overhauled a 1-3 series deficit to eventually annex the crown. Robert Jaworski’s Barangay Ginebra did it first against the Benjie Paras-led Shell in the 1991 First Conference before San Miguel’s “Beeracle” in the 2015-2016 Philippine Cup against Alaska in an amazing comeback from a 0-3 hole.

The Tropang 5G have faced adversities since Day 1 of the all-Filipino conference.

TNT came into the tournament without Governors’ Cup Finals Most Valuable Player Jayson Castro due to a season-ending knee injury. It dropped its first three games before losing Commissioner’s Cup Finals Most Valuable Player Rey Nambatac for the rest of the contest due to a pulled groin during its winning run.

The Tropang 5G staved off elimination in stunning twice-to-beat Magnolia in the quarterfinals before booting out Rain or Shine in the semis at a steep price of Pogoy missing four games and Williams two due to a hamstring and ankle injuries, respectively.

What’s left now for TNT is the determination to continue fighting no matter how bleak its mission of banishing the ghost of a failed grand slam bid in 2011 is.

And come what the result may be, keep its pride intact.