TNT Hopes to Get Win #1 Against Alaska

(Photo by the PBA Media Bureau)


Jayson Castro and company look to get over their opening day loss.

Coming off a rather disappointing end to their Governors' Cup campaign which resulted in another semifinal exit, many fans began to question the ability of the Talk N Text KaTropa to compete against the league's elite teams. After all, they have the best point guard in Asia in Jayson Castro and another big man in Troy Rosario who continues to improve every single game. 

However, the KaTropa started the Philippine Cup the same way they ended the previous conference, in a defeat as they dropped their opening game against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, 82-79. That is despite Jayson Castro's near triple-double performance which included 18 points, 10 assists, and 9 rebounds. What happened? As Nash Racela said it, the KaTropa weren't making their shots as they only made 30% out of their 102 ATTEMPTS. They were shooting horribly that they only made 8 out of their 38 shots from deep while only making 47% of their free throw attempts. Nash Racela admitted that Jayson Castro was the lone bright spot in that horrible defeat as he was the only one who was making the right decisions.

Heading into tonight's game against the Alaska Aces who are also gunning for their first win in the Philippine Cup, the KaTropa only need to do one thing if they are to get their first win: MAKE MORE SHOTS

In addition to this, Nash Racela stated that the rest of his team should learn to make better decisions with the ball as they can't always rely on the Blur to bail them out every single game. Jayson Castro may have shot 42% from the field against the Elasto Painters but the problem was, his teammates weren't doing any better as Anthony Semerad was only one aside from Castro who shot above 40%.


Conclusion

Beating the Alaska Aces who have a talented rookie in Jeron Teng is no walk in the park for the KaTropa. Aside from Jeron Teng, Jayson Castro and company will also have to worry about the explosiveness of the Beast, Calvin Abueva. Fortunately for the Blur, he has teammates who are known scorers. They just need to score MORE than they did against Rain or Shine. 

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