The one who controls the rebound, controls the game.

The basketball saying may be as old as time but that still rings true if you’d ask TNT head coach Chot Reyes especially in the Tropang 5G semifinals series against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.

The veteran mentor was very much aware of Rain or Shine’s rebounding prowess and that’s exactly why one of his team’s game plan in the series is to keep the Elasto Painters off the board.

“One of our main discussions in practice was to make sure that we keep them off the offensive glass,” said Reyes who noted ROS’ quarterfinals series against NLEX where it dominated the rebounding department.

Typifying the Elasto Painters' efforts on the boards in that series was Jhonard Clarito, who pulled down an average of 18.5 rebounds in the quarterfinals highlighted by a career-best 21 rebounds in Game 1.

In TNT’s 98-91 win over ROS, the Tropang 5G had a huge 59-44 advantage in the rebounding department. Clarito was limited to just seven rebounds while the Elasto Painters frontline of Keith Datu, Caelan Tiongson and Santi Santillan only combined for 16.

The ploy to use a smaller lineup to speed up the game also backfired to ROS as Poy Erram, Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Calvin Oftana each had 10 rebounds while Kelly Williams added nine.

“When they started small obviously we had an advantage in size and so that’s what we talked about in the timeout that if they continue to play small we have to make sure to pound the offensive glass and make sure we dominate the boards,” explained Reyes.

And that was what exactly happened as the multiple possessions TNT got allowed the team to create the separation in the final frame where RR Pogoy presided over a huge offensive thrust.

“Ganun naman yung basketball there’s a give and take. You make your decisions and as coaches we take advantage of what the situation presents,” said Reyes

“So when they went small we made sure we took advantage – I call it taking advantage of our advantage,” he added.