TNT draws first blood
Despite once again battling injury all game long, Joshua Smith came up huge in the clutch as TNT beat San Miguel to take Game 1 of the 2017 PBA Commissioner's Cup Finals Wednesday. 2017-18 PBA season to skirt FIBA home-and-away games
Tied at 102-all with 7.6 seconds left, Smith received the inbounds pass and immediately went to work against June Mar Fajardo, pounding his way inside before hitting the gamewinning hook shot with 1.6 seconds to go as the KaTropa pulled off a 104-102 victory at the Big Dome.
Holding on for the dramatic win, TNT took an early 1-0 lead against the Beermen in the best-of-7 series for the title.
The scores: TNT 104
– Pogoy 27, Smith 21, Castro 14, Garcia 13, Rosario 10, Tautuaa 7, Semerad 5, Williams 5, Rosales 2, Golla 0, Carey 0, Nuyles 0.
SAN MIGUEL 102
– Rhodes 31, Fajardo 18, Cabagnot 16, Ross 11, Santos 11, Lassiter 8, De Ocampo 6, Espinas 1, Tubid 0.
Quarterscores: Sports)
24-31, 56-51, 75-73, 104-102.
(ABS-CBN
The PBA Commissioner’s Office is now thoroughly studying sets of calendars of activities for next season that will skirt the important FIBA tourneys, thus, allowing the best of the league to play for Gilas Pilipinas in a quest to make the 2019 World Cup and the 2020 Olympics.
“It’s hard but the PBA is doing the best we can,” PBA commissioner Chito Narvasa told The STAR.
An option is to start the 2017-18 PBA season by the fourth week of November or the first week of December when the first window of the FIBA home-and-away Olympic qualifying event is done.
Gilas Pilipinas plays Japan on November 24 then Chinese Taipei on November 27.
Narvasa, Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas presidentAl Panlilio and Gilas coach Chot Reyes sit down in another meeting anytime soon to finalize the details of Gilas’ international sorties.
The makeups of the Gilas team in these tournaments and the season calendars being laid down by the Commissioner’s Office are subject to the approval of the PBA governors whose next meeting is set June 29.
The FIBAAsia Cup and the SEAGames are both slated in August when the PBA Governors Cup is in progress.
“(The FIBA Asia Cup) is not a qualifying event for an important FIBA event so I was telling coach Chot ‘is it possible for us to field a mix of Gilas cadets and veterans,’” said Narvasa. “In fairness to coach Chot, he’s leaving it to the PBA to decide.”