Struggles of TNT

The TNT Tropang Giga started the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup bubble with a 5-0 winning streak where we saw big performances from Roger Pogoy, Ray Parks, and JP Erram. Then, they stumbled against the NLEX Road Warriors who gave TNT their first taste of defeat. The Tropang Giga were able to bounce back against the Blackwater Elite but things went south again as they dropped two consecutive games for the first time this conference.

TNT first lost to the Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok on Wednesday despite 29 points from Parks and 25 points from Jason Castro. In that 102-92 loss, the trio of Pogoy, Erram, and Troy Rosario combined for 21 points on eight for 30 field goal shooting. It also didn't help TNT that Magnolia scored 52 points in the paint. In their second straight loss which came at the hands of the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings, Pogoy and Erram both bounced back from their ugly outing against Magnolia as Pogoy and Erram finished with 12 points and 17 points respectively. However, one of the reasons why TNT lost on Friday against Ginebra was another bad game from Troy Rosario. In 29 minutes, Rosario finished with two points on 0 for 15 field goal shooting. The rest of the team didn't shoot well particularly from the three-point line. Parks shot one for eight. Pogoy and Rosario missed a combined ten attempts from long distance. As a team, TNT shot five for 41 from the three-point line.

In their three losses thus far in the 2020 Philippine Cup, the Tropang Giga failed to reach the 100-point mark as they were only averaging 89 points in those contests. That's a big dip for a team that is averaging a league-leading 102 points per game. 

TNT is set to play the end of their back-to-back games on Saturday against the Meralco Bolts before closing the elimination round against the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters on Tuesday. Two games to get back to their winning ways in time for the playoffs. Two games to get themselves out of this slump. 

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