With Jayson Castro going down with a season-ending knee injury, much of the point guard duties, as well as the immense pressure, suddenly fell to the shoulders of Rey Nambatac – something that he admitted got the better of him.

And it took a game and a pep talk from head coach Chot Reyes to finally get himself together and come through with crucial performances to help the Tropang Giga shake off the pesky Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in five games in the semifinals.

“After game three, I told Rey, ‘Rey, we don't need another Jayson Castro. We need ‘Sting Rey’. We need to see that sting. ’So I think that woke him up a little bit,” recalled Reyes after TNT’s 97-92 win over ROS.

In that game, Nambatac finally stepped up with 12 points to go with eight assists, four rebounds and three steals.

“That's the game that we need from him. So I said, we need ‘Sting Rey’. Nobody can take Jayson, can fill Jayson's shoes. But we need ‘Sting Rey’. So luckily he responded. Credit to him. He really worked hard,” added the veteran coach.

For the part of Nambatac, he knew that he had to step up in Castro’s absence but he also needed to keep in mind that he cannot overdo things and pressure himself to fill in the veteran guard's shoes alone.

And that’s all the more important especially heading into the Finals which when TNT last won, it was Castro who came out as the best local player on the team, even winning the Finals MVP award.

“Sabi naman yung coach Chot sa amin, hindi naman totally kailangan ko i-fill yung gap ni Jason, which is hindi naman talagang kaya. So, it's a total of team effort. Yun pa rin yun talaga yung kailangan,” said Nambatac.

“At least 10 points, 12 points yung maproduce ko sa 20 points per game ni Jason itong playoff. Malaking bagay na yun. And the rest, magdurong-durong na namin ng mga kasama ko,” he added.