TNT knew that nothing short of blood, sweat and tears are needed to complete its bid to retain the crowning jewel of the PBA season and head coach Chot Reyes lauded the courage and efforts of his wards who played through pain and injuries to surge ahead in the titular series against San Miguel.
Reyes revealed that injuries have been hampering TNT throughout the series, with Ryan Reyes already sidelined and Poy Erram nursing an ankle sprain during the Tropang Giga’s 102-93 Game 5 win over San Miguel.
To make matters worse for TNT, its dreaded fourth quarter hero Jayson Castro went down with an ankle injury after stepping on the foot of Marcio Lassiter with 7:29 to go in the third frame. Castro managed to swish two of his free throws after that incident but never returned into the game.
“The word that comes to my mind is courageous. I thought we fought with a lot of courage,” said Reyes who shared that Erram was a game-time decision after hurting his ankle during practice.
“Poy Erram had a bad sprain in practice yesterday and he went to the hospital right after practice, was in treatment in practice, today, he suited up. (We thought) he wasn’t going to be able to but he suited up. That took a lot of courage. Jayson shooting those free throws took a lot of courage,” said Reyes.
And there was Kelly Williams who defied Father Time and held the fort for TNT inside the paint against a relatively younger and heftier SMB frontline that boasted a June Mar Fajardo, Mo Tautuaa and Vic Manuel.
Erram and Williams finished with 17 and 21 points, respectively, and also combined for 18 of the TNT’s 47 rebounds while the rest of Tropa picked up the slack after Castro’s injury with Mikey Williams and Kib Montalbo leading the charge.
A sizzling 12-0 run, built on four straight three-pointers to close out the third quarter proved to be the lift that TNT needed to create the separation and inch closer to retain the PBA title.
In question, however, is Castro's health heading into Game 6 where the defending champions will have the chance to finish off the SMB.
“We have to see what's the medical findings first. We have to go by science. It was the same case with Poy. We had no idea. They worked on it the whole day yesterday, the whole evening, the morning and got him ready so we’ll see,” Reyes said of Castro’s injury.