TNT, Meralco to break series tie
Which side will perform better playing hurt?
The TNT KaTropa Texters and the Meralco Bolts are both nursing injuries to key players as they go at each other for the third time tonight, fighting for the pivotal 2-1 lead in their PBA Governors Cup best-offive semifinal showdown at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Jared Dillinger is a doubtful starter for Meralco due to a hamstring strain, but the Bolts, nonetheless, set out for the 7 p.m. setto with high morale following their stirring 106-91 triumph Thursday night.
Beaten for only the second time in 14 games in the tourney, the Texters, meanwhile, are raring to bounce back even with injuries to Syrian reinforcement Michael Madanly and gunner Ryan Reyes.
The first two games proved to be about intensity and energy. And Game Three could well be the same.
“We need to defend, match their energy and match their intensity,” said TNT coach Jong Uichico.
“We started flat (Thursday) and we knew that Meralco would come out with a lot of energy. We shouldn’t have played catch-up the whole game,” Uichico said on their Game Two loss.
It was the other way around in the series opener with the Texters looking always a step ahead of the Bolts in their 113-95 victory.
“We played a lot better than the way we did in the second half in Game One. We played much better offensively and defensively, and we’re more prepared on what they tried to do,” said Meralco coach Norman Black.
“I made a series of adjustments, and I expect coach Jong (Uichico) to came up with something different, something new in the next game, and we have to be ready,” Black added.
Black is hoping the best for Dillinger who is among Meralco’s key backups to import Allen Durham.
Dillinger limped to their bench with 77 seconds to go Thursday night as he sustained a hamstring injury in taking a layup.
The 6-foot-4 forward was still limping when he left the Big Dome but expressed confidence that he could play with it.
“I’ve played with worse. It’s just a matter of a doctors’ recommendations, whether I listen to them or not, a lot of painkillers, a lot of drugs. We’ll see what I can do,” Dillinger said.
Black insists a key for them against TNT is Dillinger and their other shooters to make their shots to open some room for Durham at the paint.
Dillinger, Jimmy Alapag and Cliff Hodge did just that Thursday.
“A big key was trying to find a way to give AD room to move on the floor. Spacing was important and so was the ball movement, but the most important was to make the shots,” said Black.
Alapag went 4-of-4 from beyond the arc to move within only six more of surpassing Allan Caidic’s record as the PBA player with the most triples made.