Smith’s status still unclear after early exit in TNT loss

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TNT coach Nash Racela had little to say about the status of his import Joshua Smith after the KaTropa’s 125-101 Game 3 loss in the 2017 PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinals Thursday night.

“I don’t know. No idea. I can say something here, but I really have no idea,” Racela told reporters when asked for updates on Smith.

Smith played a measly nine minutes on the floor, contributing just four points and seven rebounds before complaining about pain in his right foot and leaving the arena early.

He left the game with 6:54 remaining in the second quarter as team doctors tended on his supposed injury, then exited to the dugout midway in the third period and out of the venue even before the game ended.

Racela explained that it was a team decision to take Smith out of the court so that the medics can assess
his situation better.

“It’s a decision by the team. We just want to make sure that he’s ok,” he said.

Racela also didn’t guaranteed that Smith will be able to suit up for Game 4 on Saturday.

“We’ll let you know if we get something soon,” he said.

Without Smith, the KaTropa failed to match the mighty Gin Kings, with Justin Brownlee taking over in the first half and igniting the rout with a 61-47 halftime lead, which further ballooned to 32, 125-93, late in the game.

In Racela’s eyes, though, coach Tim Cone simply just had the better gameplan for the game.

“It’s a game of adjustments. Coach Tim made wonderful adjustments for this game,” he said.

What was glaring, however, was the discrepancy when it comes to fouls (TNT 30 – Ginebra 17) and free throw attempts (TNT 9 – Ginebra 29), which further made closing the series out hard for the KaTropa.

“It’s hard to play in a game like this. You would really struggle. You saw the game, you saw the game,” said Racela, before citing Cone’s plea back in Game 3 for more fan support. “Coach Tim asked for help and he got his help today. It is what it is.”