Sports

TNT tests ‘Filipino candidate’ Oliver as it begins bounce-back journey


Poy Erram (centre) and TNT start their Commissioner's Cup campaign against Ian Sangalang (left), Rafi Reavis and Magnolia.  — PBA . IMAGES

Poy Erram (centre) and TNT start their Commissioner’s Cup campaign against Ian Sangalang (left), Rafi Reavis and Magnolia. — PBA . IMAGES

TNT overcame a bitter defeat in the previous Games, and coach Chot Reyes said they are continuing to learn from their experience.

“[Bouncing back] Nor can it be our sole motivator,” Reyes said without judgment as his Tropang Giga opened their PBA Commissioners Cup campaign against the formidable Magnolia at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Wednesday. “We talked about it (the loss in the 7th Philippine Cup final) and tried to learn from the loss.”

Cameron Oliver will be christened by fire in the competition at 5:45pm as he will be up against Serbian Nick Rakocevic even as San Miguel Beer, who has won the PH Cup, starts a second-ball chase Triple Crown’s gem is elusive during the 3pm game against Blackwater, but not after mining a new last-minute import.

Oliver, who is being considered for naturalization for Gilas, will literally get his first taste of a PBA game after Tropang Giga was unable to play the modded games, which Reyes was ruing.

Reyes said: “We’ll only know how good he (Oliver) is in game time because we haven’t even had a chance to play any tuning games yet. “We can hardly get 10 people to train due to all our injuries.

“We even had to let the 3×3 players practice with us so we could build the script. Pati tuloy laro nila nagulo. “

Diamond Stone came late Tuesday to win for highly rated Thomas Robinson, who the Beermen put on the injured list (See related story on this page).

San Miguel will have a lighter task than TNT, which will play a Hotshots team after two straight wins, where Rakocevic averaged 33 points with 25 rebounds.

The big problem for Magnolia and Rokocevic going into this matchup is that they will be playing a title contender for the first time.

Magnolia’s Chito Victolero was delighted to see Rokocevic pick up 45 points in a 100-92 win over Terrafirma, but was even happier when his local squad filled the gap as Hotshots import was reduced to just 21 in Converge’s 109-105 win last Saturday.

“Seeing him do 45 [points] It’s a good feeling,” Victoero said as he tried to steer Magnolia to the solo lead. “But I was looking for locals to contribute in that game and we got there in the next game against Converge, which made it clear that locals could step up if needed. .”

Meanwhile, PBA commissioner Willie Marcial said the federation had received notice of the sanction from the Nasugbu Regional Trial Court (Batangas) (RTC), but added that the assets acquired by the court order were not still in the hands of the PBA.

Judge Wilhelmina Go-Santiago of Nasugbu RTC issued a Preliminary Attachment against Phoenix properties for failure to settle a P157 million debt to Absolute Distillers, Inc. The PBA has been included in the list of organizations that have been served notice because of the P100 million bond that new teams pay to the league to secure a franchise’s long-term participation.

“We received the notice, but we no longer have the P100 million bond. That money was returned to Phoenix because they met the minimum requirement of [a five-year] stay for new teams in the league,” said Marcial.

The league boss said the PBA kept the relationship for five years before returning it to the team. Phoenix has been in the league since 2016.

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