PBA Philippine Cup Finals Most Valuable Player Mikey Williams considers TNT’s only loss in the eliminations as the turning point of their successful title run.
The frontrunner for the MVP and Rookie of the Year said in an interview with CNN Philippines’ Sports Desk that their 83-67 loss to San Miguel Beer last Sept. 8 was a dose of reality check TNT needed in order to eventually reach the ultimate goal.
“I think it was a turning point for us as a unit, as a team when we took our first loss to San Miguel and we didn’t lose in good fashion. We lost by I think like a dub, maybe,” Williams said in the program that aired Tuesday, Nov. 2.
TNT was riding high on six straight victories to begin the conference when its unbeaten run was derailed after SMB raced to a 16-2 start and never looked back.
“That turning point was kinda a moment where everybody looked at each other and made sure that they’re accountable, because we knew that we needed to change like it was something in our games that we need to fix,” said the Tropang Giga guard, who was held to seven points on 3-of-13 shooting.
It was a defeat that eventually helped the Tropang Giga later in the campaign, sweeping the remaining five matches to top the elims with a 10-1 record.
TNT eventually met SMB in a hard-fought semis battle that went the full seven games, learning from the lessons of that elims loss to emerge victorious, and eventually lift the Jun Bernardino Perpetual Trophy with a five-game mastery of the Magnolia Pambansang Manok.
“I think from there, that’s when things took a great turn for the best and that’s when we really started to pick it up and turn things around because we were complacent and complacency is the biggest thing that can ruin the team,” said Williams.