Castro hits team for ugly start

A consistent contender in the Philippine Basketball Association, Talk ‘N Text (TNT) is suddenly wallowing in an unfamiliar territory with a 1-3 (win-losses) start in the Governors’ Cup.

For team leader Jayson Castro, the KaTropa have no one to blame but themselves for this.

“It’s on us players already, not to coaches or anybody else. We’re the ones playing inside the court. So, there’s nobody to blame other than us,” said Castro after TNT suffered a forgettable 96-125 shellacking from unbeaten Alaska on Sunday night.

Castro said he couldn’t remember the last time they suffered a beating like that as the Aces buried them with as many as 37 points before settling for a 29-point victory.

TNT’s fate was actually over and done with in the first quarter alone with a 13-35 score.

“I can’t remember when we last experienced this kind of loss. This loss was that bad. We lacked energy from the start. I couldn’t imagine how bad we played,” added Castro who himself also bled for just 13 points on 3-of-9 shooting, two rebounds and three assists.

The KaTropa’s loss to Alaska was their second straight and third overall defeat following another loss to NLEX, 90-103 and Blackwater, 98-104.

It was an unexpected start for TNT, according to the two-time Best Point Guard in Asia.

“We have high expectations this conference. We finished 8-3 last conference but fell short in the quarterfinals. We thought this conference as our redemption with hopes of making it to the semi-finals and even finals if possible,” he added as TNT fell to its worst start since the 2016 Commissioner’s Cup.

“However, it is now difficult to recover especially, with a meager 1-3 card.”

TNT’s lone win so far in the season-ending conference, which was a slim 92-90 escape act over Meralco, came when it paraded an All-Filipino line-up after axing original import Mike Glover.

Stacy Davis stepped in as replacement for Glover but failed to tow TNT to a single win in his first two games despite decent averages of 24.5 points and 14 rebounds.

Castro though refused to cast the blame on their import as he reiterated the locals’ performance in TNT’s free fall early in the season-ending conference as the main culprit.

“We won without an import, then we lost two games with an import. I think, it’s not on the import anymore. It’s on us local players. It’s not the import’s fault.”