Time to rest, recharge for PBA teams

MANILA, Philippines — Hot or not, inside the Magic 4 or outside, every PBA team takes this long break to do whatever’s necessary to be better equipped when they return to the battlefield beginning Oct. 7.

Recharge.

It’s been a tough grind with the 13 squads playing six to nine games in 34 days in the initial salvo of the Season 50 Governors’ Cup – sometimes a hat trick of assignments held every other night – and they could use a lot of rest.

Recover.

Injuries plagued a good number of the competitors.

Defending champion TNT is manning the fort without injured import Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and managed a 4-4 card in Group A, good for fourth behind NLEX (7-2), San Miguel (7-2) and Converge (5-4). Ditto Barangay Ginebra, which sits sixth and last in Group B at 2-4 with Justin Brownlee out.

Regroup.

Some of the big guns are “underperforming.” Take TNT and Ginebra, the finalists of the previous season, and Meralco, which runs fifth in Group B with 3-5.

“We have to rest and we have to get better,” said Tropang 5G coach Chot Reyes. “Right now, our game is nowhere near good enough. Hopefully, we can find enough wins to get into the playoffs.”

His pal, Tim Cone, is on the same boat with a Ginebra team struggling on the heels of its Commissioner’s Cup title run.

“We didn’t play like a championship team these whole six games. So we got to figure that out and hopefully this break will get everybody going in the right direction,” said Cone.

Help may be coming as Brownlee is expected to be in harness for the resumption. RHJ is in the country for his rehab and hopes to be back by late October.

“It’s always nice that we know Justin’s coming back. Hopefully, he’ll be healthy after playing in the (Sept. 10 to 20) Asian Games (with Gilas Pilipinas). We’ll see,” said Cone.

“We don’t know when. Tignan natin dito sa break kung makakabalik siya,” said Reyes of Hollis-Jefferson.