![\"Coach](\"https:\/\/sports.inquirer.net\/files\/2026\/05\/IMG_0439_PBA-50-Commissioners-Cup-semifinals-Meralco-TNT_Coach-Chot-Reyes-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\nCoach Chot Reyes (middle) leads the on-court celebration for TNT after upset Game 3 win over Meralco. \u2014MARLO CUETO<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In a twist to its import situation, TNT is bringing a well-known, tested name to fill the massive shoes left by the injured Bol Bol.<\/p>\n
Chris McCullough arrived on Sunday as Bol\u2019s substitute and had a preview of what he hopes could be a fruitful stint when he witnessed the Tropang 5G fight it out despite playing all-Filipino in slipping past Meralco, 77-75, on the Mall of Asia Arena.<\/p>\n
That gave TNT a 2-1 lead of their best-of-seven series within the PBA Commissioner\u2019s Cup semifinals, as McCullough can be tasked to try to replicate his role in San Miguel Beer\u2019s run to the 2019 title of the identical conference where he and the Beermen brought down TNT.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sad to see an injury like that, but hopefully he can get back home and get surgery,\u201d McCullough said, first expressing his well-wishes to his fellow ex-NBA player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just need to help this team win as [much as] possible, do what I got to do, just play basketball,\u201d he added as TNT now begins the strategy of getting him integrated into the way in which things are run before Wednesday\u2019s Game 4.<\/p>\n
His Tropang 5G debut is on the Smart Araneta Coliseum, where he\u2019ll be tasked to steer his latest squad to a commanding 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n
McCullough\u2019s signing ends a whirlwind 48 hours for TNT after Bol went down in Friday\u2019s 87-76 Game 2 loss with a partial Achilles tear, as team manager Jojo Lastimosa immediately got the lines burning.<\/p>\n
The primary Game 3 option was actually to suit up Malick Diouf, the previous University of the Philippines star, before naming a everlasting fix.<\/p>\n
Pogoy drains winner<\/h2>\n
But with government agencies required to ensure that Diouf to be given the okay to play closed for the weekend, the Tropang 5G were left with no selection but to go together with an all-local crew.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey called me around Friday night they usually told me if I\u2019m available and I said yes,\u201d Diouf said. \u201cI used to be really excited for it because I assumed it was a fantastic opportunity to point out folks that I can play here. But hopefully I can play soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
With each Diouf and McCullough on the sidelines as spectators, TNT\u2019s locals needed to weather out the drawback, in addition to an 11-point deficit, to squeak past Meralco and move two wins away from a fifth consecutive Finals appearance.<\/p>\n
Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser got here up with crucial plays down the stretch, while RR Pogoy knocked down the go-ahead three with seven seconds left before TNT saw CJ Cansino and Javee Mocon miss point-blank attempts as time expired.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really disappointing losing Bol, losing our teammate, losing our brother,\u201d said Ganuelas-Rosser. \u201cCoach said that he (Bol) messaged him and said he really desired to be on the market. So we desired to exit here and dedicate the sport to him and play for him.<\/p>\n
\u201c, he carried us here, so hopefully we will bring (ourselves) across the finish line and we will finish the job,\u201d he added. INQ<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Coach Chot Reyes (middle) leads the on-court celebration for TNT after upset Game 3 win over Meralco. \u2014MARLO CUETO In a twist to its import situation, TNT is bringing a well-known, tested name to fill the massive shoes left by the injured Bol Bol. Chris McCullough arrived on Sunday as Bol\u2019s substitute and had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":340210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[1918,52110,969,4216,2347,1148,3190,1546],"class_list":["post-340209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-bolts","tag-importless","tag-move","tag-series","tag-stun","tag-title","tag-tropang","tag-wins"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340209"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":340212,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340209\/revisions\/340212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}