Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net
Rookie TNT KaTropa coach Nash Racela was not about to offer any excuses for what happened Friday night.
“We did not lose because of the import,” Racela said matter-of-factly, minutes after his Texters got blown off the Smart Araneta Coliseum floor in Game 2 of their PBA Commissioner’s Cup title series with San Miguel Beer.
That’s why Racela is sticking it out with burly Joshua Smith as the Texters try to bounce back from the silly manhandling they got as TNT and favored San Miguel break a 1-1 tie on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. also at the fabled Big Dome floor.
“They (Beermen) had a scheme [for] Joshua,” Racela said. “The problem was how we reacted to the other things they were doing.”
One of those ugly reactions came from rookie RR Pogoy, who was coming off a career game in the series opener. Pogoy had a short night after losing his top and striking Arwind Santos in the groin to get ejected.
He was lucky enough to duck suspension and just be slapped a P30,000 fine despite being whistled for a flagrant foul 2 penalty.
“We lost our composure, especially in the second quarter,” Racela said as he offered no excuses after the Texters blew an early 17-point lead and trailed by more than that when the third quarter came along. “In the PBA, the team that loses composure is normally the team that loses.”
Needless to say, Racela will make preparations for the third game—and the rest of this series—to make sure that his Texters don’t fall into a lapse similar to that of Game 2, where they failed to score in the first seven minutes of the second quarter to lose the lead—and the game—right there.
And preparations like that need to be in place especially with Racela knowing just where this series is headed.
“We’re expecting a Game 7,” he declared.
San Miguel’s Leo Austria, meanwhile, is bracing for a tough fight—despite coming off the very authoritative win—as he believes that just suffered such a defeat will have all the energy to bounce back hard.
That’s exactly what the Beermen did after they gave up the first 17 points of Game 2 and looked ripe to fall into a 0-2 hole.
“It would have been very tough coming back from that, because Talk ‘N Text is such a talented team,” Austria said.
“Trailing that big [early] pricked their pride,” he added. “And they just worked hard for it (series-tying win). And that’s what we don’t want to happen (allow TNT to bounce back).”
Despite proving they have the ability to bounce back from a bad start, reigning three-time MVP June Mar Fajardo said it is crucial that San Miguel bursts out of the starting gate with a lot more energy.
“We can’t start flat in the first quarter,” Fajardo said in Filipino. “If we can go hard, we should go hard immediately.
The Beermen’s anchor said the lock-down defense the team played after falling behind, 0-17, to start the game will play a key role in the tie-breaking match.
“We had a better defense [after falling behind early] and it’s a credit to my teammates,” he said. “They saw that I was having a hard time defending TNT’s import and they helped me. Our coaching staff had a good adjustment, and Kuya JayR (Reyes) and Kuya Yancy (de Ocampo) taught me how to defend the import better.”
“We were able to adjust from what they did in Game 1, so we expect them to do the same for the next game. We’ll see what we can do more for Game 3,” Fajardo added.