TNT KaTropa and San Miguel Beer, two teams stopped on their tracks Wednesday, square off in an interesting Petron Blaze Saturday showdown at the MOA Arena, each side determined to avoid further slide.
The Texters need to pick up the pieces of their shattering 89-111 loss to the Magnolia Pambansang Manok Hotshots to stay in the fight for a twice-to-beat bonus in the quarterfinals.
The Beermen, on the other hand, must recover right away from their 94-98 upset by the GlobalPort Batang Pier to stay in the middle of the pack and in contention for a spot in the pair of best-of-three quarterfinals.
TNT slid down to third place at 6-2 on its loss to Magnolia while San Miguel Beer dropped down to eighth after suffering its first loss in its last four outings at the hands of GlobalPort.
They try to avert further slide against each other in their 6:45 p.m. setto -- a grudge match between the two title protagonists in this midseason tourney last year.
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It's a virtual playoff match, and each side hopes to be in their best form.
TNT import Josh Smith emphasized the need to dish out their best at all times.
"We got to have the same mentality no matter who we play. No matter if we're playing Magnolia, no matter if we're playing NLEX, no matter if we're playing Meralco or San Miguel," said Smith.
"We still got three games until the playoffs, but we got to go back to square one. We got to play defense and we got to fix some things," he also said.
San Miguel Beer forward Arwind Santos said they must play with a sense of urgency.
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The Beermen, indeed, are in a tight spot with a 3-4 slate at eighth spot. They are barely up on Phoenix Petroleum (3-5) and Barangay Ginebra (2-5).
San Miguel dropped a close match with GlobalPort while TNT reeled down on Magnolia's mighty second-half juggernaut Wednesday.
