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| Coach Jojo Lastimosa revealed that TNT had a bad practice before giving Terrafirma a bad beat. Dennis Acosta |
QUEZON CITY--TNT was almost flawless on Wednesday night against Terrafirma in the PBA Commissioner's Cup, and the PLDT franchise showed its might against the Columbian franchise by exploding for 75 second-half points en route to the 40-point rout.
The Tropang Giga set a franchise record by scoring their biggest win ever, bettering their 38-point blowout win against the Blackwater Bossing in 2019.
To add, TNT only committed five turnovers the entire game while assisting on 30 of its 50 made field goals and 18 made free throws.
However, coach Jojo Lastimosa implied that he somehow did not envision this to happen after what transpired during their practice.
"To be honest, we did not practice very well in the last couple of days. It was the first time I got really mad at the guys. I hardly get mad at them in practice. I saw them. They were not practicing. It's the worst practice I've seen in my entire year and three months with TNT," Lastimosa said.
He then issued a challenge at his players, saying, "I told them, 'You just can't turn it on and turn it off anytime you want, so if you want to play well, you gotta practice well.'"
Lastimosa thought that the recent slack in practice became evident in-game when the Dyip were keeping in step with the Tropang Giga in the first half.
However, TNT returned from the halftime break seemingly on a mission, and they dominated Terrafirma in the final 24 minutes to pull away.
"In the beginning, it looked like that, but they turned it up," Lastimosa further said.
However, he wanted his team not to slack again and be serious from the get-go in its next game.
"I don't want to see them like that. I want them to be all squared up," Lastimosa said.
Up next for the Tropang Giga are their sister team, the Meralco Bolts, on Sunday night at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig.
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