TNT Tropang Giga coach Chot Reyes challenges his players to give their full commitment in effort and hard work consistently if they want to go further in the Philippine Basketball Association Philippine Cup.
“We cannot win games on talents or just showing up. We really have to outwork and outhustle every team that we play,” the outspoken mentor said.
Bundled at the middle of the standings with a 3-3 win-loss record, TNT’s campaign has been anything but easy.
The Tropang Giga have yet to win consecutive games in the All-Filipino conference as they have been blowing hot and cold.
TNT did snap a two-game slump — but barely.
Reyes’ squad needed to hang tough in the endgame to emerge victorious over Meralco, 92-90, last Sunday at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
But the former Gilas Pilipinas coach felt that the Tropang Giga should come up with a sense of urgency and show sustained energy the whole 48 minutes of action.
It wasn’t the case in their 76-87 loss to Blackwater and an embarrassing crushing at the hands of NorthPort.
Although Reyes liked the effort put up by TNT in a close 89-91 loss to defending champion San Miguel Beer, he still wants to see some changes.
“Our record is that way because, clearly, Blackwater and NorthPort just outworked us. I was happy with our effort against San Miguel. We came out and we played San Miguel hard. We gave ourselves a chance to win but we lost to a much better team. I felt we played really well against San Miguel,” he said.
“But our losses to Blackwater and NorthPort, we were simply outworked. That’s why we say we cannot rely on our talent and our roster or personnel. We really have to outwork and outhustle the other teams.”
“The staple of this team is our effort and our work but right now we’re being outworked in the work department.”
The road gets bumpier for TNT as it will face streaking NLEX, which is on a four-game winning streak, on Saturday in Candon, Ilocos Sur.
“And now we’re gonna play the hottest team in the league. NLEX is playing really, really well. They’re highly-motivated, they love what they’re doing so clearly that’s gonna be a tough test for us,” Reyes said.
The tactician hopes the Tropang Giga will have enough time to address their issues leading into the first of last crucial five matches for a chance to secure a spot in the playoffs.
“We have to fix things internally first. We have to fix ourselves first and not worry too much about who we’re gonna play. It doesn’t matter who we’ll play if effort and energy will be the same as our last game (against NorthPort) we won’t beat anyone and just get blown out,” he said.
