TNT staring at 3-point list as PH Cup reopening looms

Troy Rosario scored a basket for TNT against Rain or Shine. —PBA IMAGES

TNT has collected three victories in the Philippine Basketball Association’s (PBA) All-Filipino conference, emerging as one of the early leaders of the tournament, just behind Magnolia.

The Tropang Giga are also looking more and more like a tight-knit crew, leading the all 12 clubs in assists, and placing second in transition baskets—quite the feat for a side going through an adjustment phase under a new coach.

But all that hardly matters now, according to Chot Reyes.

“We’re no longer thinking of [our] 3-0 record,” he told the Inquirer on Sunday afternoon, on the eve of the PBA delegation’s relocation to Pampanga province, where the league is looking to reboot its Philippine Cup stalled by a surge in new COVID-19 infections and the rise of a new virus variant.

Little window

Reyes has shifted his focus on three other things as he braces for the little window to whip his charges back to competition form.

“We just want to first, make sure everyone’s healthy; second, to get back into game shape [and] third, play whomever is in front of us.”

The list might as well be a general guide for every other team at this point.

The PBA caravan is rolling into Pampanga on Monday, moving closer to thawing the ice on its centerpiece tournament.

A week to train

The league has secured a verbal agreement from the local government to use five venues as competition sites, and is expecting its relocation bid to be formalized sometime this week in time for an early September reopening.

According to PBA deputy commissioner Eric Castro, official games will be held at either Don Honorio Ventura State University in Bacolor or at Angeles University Foundation, the venue for last year’s expensive bubble project.

League chief Willie Marcial earlier said he intends to give teams at least a week to train.

The unbeaten Tropang Giga are just a game behind the red-hot Hotshots, who also have won their initial four outings.

Defending champion and crowd darling Barangay Ginebra sits in the middle of the pack with a 2-2 record. INQ