Chot reminds players to remain focused

Games today:

(Smart Araneta Coliseum)

5:15 p.m. — Meralco vs TNT

7:30 p.m. — Ginebra vs San Miguel

There’s no slowing down TNT even after building a 2-0 lead in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Philippine Cup semifinals showdown against sister team Meralco.

Head coach Chot Reyes reminds his men to keep their vision short and focus on the task at hand.

Today, that job is to take care of Game 3 of the best-of-seven series at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Game time is at 5:15 p.m. followed by the 7:30 p.m. main game between defending champion San Miguel Beer and Barangay Ginebra.

“In our Monday practice, my message was, ‘Keep your vision short.’ To just keep our sights on what’s in front of us. So right now what’s in front of us is Game 3,” Reyes said.

“We’re not thinking about anything yet beyond Game 3.”

Unlike in the series opener, where they needed to overhaul a 21-point first-half deficit, the Tropang 5G led from start to finish in Game 2 for a 109-92 blowout win.

TNT’s walk-in-the-park victory was aided by the Bolts’ shooting - a horrendous 1-of-14 from the three-point area and 30-of-72 field goal shooting. In contrast, last season’s all-Filipino runner-up shot above 50 percent (44-of-80) from the field.

Reyes emphasized the need for the Tropang 5G to sustain their stingy defense to move closer to a fourth straight finals appearance.

“We know they’re not going to shoot that poorly the next time out. We have no illusions about how strong that other team is. But our focus has to be consistently taking away their strengths,” Reyes said.

Despite being dumped into a deep hole, Meralco is not losing hope.

“They have to win four. That’s the biggest takeaway for us: They have to win four. We can’t let these two losses affect our morale and our team spirit,” Bolts guard and offensive focal point Chris Newsome said.

“We’ll take the experience from our veterans who have been in multiple series before because in a series, anything can happen. You can be down two or three games and still win,” added Newsome, who played through a dislocated pinky he sustained early in the game.

Meanwhile, it’s back to zero for the Beermen and Kings after splitting their first two meetings.

June Mar Fajardo listed a historic third straight 20-20 production in San Miguel’s 93-84 win in Game 2 to level the series.

The nine-time Most Valuable Player finished with 21 points and 23 rebounds, days after dropping 27 markers and 23 boards in a series opening loss.

His monster numbers started in the quarterfinals when he posted 26 points and 23 rebounds in a rout of NLEX, making the 6-foot-10 behemoth as the first player to have three straight 20-20 games. Fajardo’s back-to-back 20-20 in the semis is the first in 27 years since Eric Menk did the feat for Tanduay during the 1999 All-Filipino Cup.

For Ginebra coach Tim Cone, it’s not just Fajardo that they have to worry about. The Kings had the shock of their lives when Jeron Teng, who did not see action in Game 1, came off the bench and scored 12 of his 13 points in San Miguel’s fourth quarter barrage.