In an unpredictable series that can go either way, defense is premium.
Defending champion TNT has been banking on a collective defensive effort to keep pace with Barangay Ginebra and its one-two punch in import Justin Brownlee and guard RJ Abarrientos in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup finals.
Tropang 5G head coach Chot Reyes has been emphasizing the importance of committing on the defensive end to match up with the Kings’ firepower in the best-of-seven title showdown, which, by the looks of the trend, might extend until next week.
“We have to get players stepping up and the ones who are tasked to do their role, they have to do their role and everybody else,” the 11-time champion mentor said.
“There’s no one or two players that can win a series. It’s got to be a collective effort.”
TNT has yet to take the helm in the championship, equalizing in Games 2 and 3.
The Tropang 5G dropped the series opener, 100-102; recovered in the next match, 101-94; got routed in Game 3, 116-102, before pulling a 106-98 victory in Game 4 to knot it again.
TNT is trying to break the exchange in the pivotal Game 5 being played as of press time at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Game 6 is on Sunday at the same Cubao venue while Game 7, if necessary, is on Wednesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
Defensively, the Tropang 5G are focused on putting a body on Abarrientos, who just won the Best Player of the Conference award.
“Well, we just give him different looks, we put different players on him so that he doesn’t get comfortable, but seemingly it doesn’t matter, as long as he sees the rim, he’s making the three or the four-point shot,” Reyes said.
Putting a plug on Abarrientos is necessary to slow down Ginebra’s offense at least.
A bad shooting night for the sophomore will put more pressure on Brownlee to score, as the Kings have been struggling to get significant numbers from their bench just like in Game 4 when they got outscored by their TNT counterpart, 24-41.
“But still, as I said, we just wanted to keep our composure, as long as it wasn’t an open look, it was challenged,” he said.
“That’s really the best we can do, right, is to bother and challenge his shot, and if he makes it, he makes it, and like I said, you know, the great offensive players like RJ and Justin (Brownlee), there’s really very little you can do against those guys.”
