The TNT Tropang Giga are back to .500 after scoring a win in their last game, but can they keep it going against one of the hottest teams in the league right now? The NLEX Road Warriors have been fantastic of late and should be more than a handful for the Tropang Giga this Saturday. Can the Road Warriors net their fifth win in a row at the expense of TNT?

Catch this game live on Saturday,  April 13 at 15 pm, Manila time.

TNT Tropang Giga (3-3)

Projected Starting Five:

  • Jayson Castro 
  • RR Pogoy
  • Glenn Khobuntin
  • Kelly Williams
  • Brandon Rosser

The Tropang Giga are back in the win column, as they prevented a three-game skid with a 92-90 win last Sunday over the Meralco Bolts. Calvin Oftana went nuclear on the Bolts, with the former San Beda Lions star scoring 26 points with six 3-pointers and nine rebounds coming off the bench. 

Meanwhile, Jason Castro showed there’s still gas left in the tank by chipping in 15 points. TNT can consider itself lucky for managing to escape that game with a win, as it absolutely got dominated in the possession battle, with the Bolts taking 26 more attempts from the field than the Tropang Giga, 92-66. The Road Warriors are one of the higher-scoring teams in the PBA this conference, so TNT will have to figure out how to limit the touches of NLEX, which is fourth in the league with 101.0 points per game. 

Advertisement

NLEX Road Warriors (5-1)

Projected Starting Five:

  • Richard Rodger
  • Matthew Nieto
  • Sean Anthony
  • Jake Pascual
  • David Marcelo

The Road Warriors are chugging along. The last time NLEX was on the court, it clobbered the Magnolia Chicken Timplados Hotshots on Apr. 6, 87-74. It’s such a luxury for NLEX to have a big-time scorer like Robert Bolick, who had 26 points on 8/15 shooting from the field against Magnolia. 

So far in the conference, Bolick is averaging like an import on offense, putting up 29.5 points per game on 49.1 FG%. He is also shooting 38.0 percent from behind the arc. If Bolick can go off like that against Magnolia, which is ranked first in the league in defensive rating (100.0), imagine what he can do against TNT’s defense which is fifth-worst with 106.5 points allowed per 100 possessions. NLEX’s outside shooting is another problem for the Tropang Giga’s defense, as the Road Warriors are leading the PBA with 10.8 3-pointers per game on 35.1 percent success rate – also No. 1 overall.

Picks

Spread: NLEX Road Warriors (-1.5)

Over/Under: Over (193.5)

Advertisement