TNT, NorthPort cross paths; Rain or Shine battles Phoenix
TNT is on a four-game winning streak, and that’s not the only bad news that NorthPort would have to deal with.
While the KaTropa are enjoying the longest winning streak in the PBA Governors’ Cup, the Batang Pier will have to contend with a team that was far from satisfied in winning its fourth straight game over the weekend, when it was dragged to the wire by a lowly foe.
“We’re not playing defense the way we want to,” TNT coach Bong Ravena said after a 125-120 win over Columbian in Antipolo last Saturday. “We gave up too many points.”
That was quite uncharacteristic of the KaTropa, who pride themselves in winning games on defense but fell into a shootout with a squad that is really not that loaded offensively.
Coupled with their poor form of late, the Batang Pier could really find the going rough when both squads collide in the 4:30 p.m. contest at Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay, with the KaTropa to clamp down on NorthPort’s scorers, led by prolific rookie Robert Bolick.
NorthPort has lost its last three games after opening the season-closing conference with a win, and this is an entirely different start than what it had in finishing second after the Commissioner’s Cup eliminations before eventually bowing out in the quarterfinals.
TNT’s KJ McDaniels is being touted as one of the best imports here and so far, his play has justified label.
Meanwhile, Rain or Shine and Phoenix Pulse, sides smarting from two-game losing streaks, battle in the 7 p.m. game as both seek victories that could hopefully trigger a streak that would allow them to get out of the doldrums.
Only idle Alaska is worse than the Elasto Painters and the Fuel Masters—and the Batang Pier, of course—and there’s no better time to start winning than now.
