Joshua Smith was finally in his element on Sunday night.
The hulking 6-foot-10 center, who only played 13 minutes in his 2018 Commissioner’s Cup debut last Friday, produced 24 points, 13 rebounds, and five assists to lead TNT to a 117-106 win over the NLEX Road Warriors.
His outing was his way of telling the league that he has arrived. The last time he was here, in the 2017 Commissioner’s Cup, the cager out of Washington had averaged 20.78 markers and 12.33 rebounds.
Smith was back in his old form against the Road Warriors offensively, as he only missed a single shot in the 10 shots he took. After Sunday night, the cager out of Seattle, Washington is now shooting a total of 93.3 percent from the field.
But Smith made it clear that he’s not always concerned about scoring — that he’s more focused on other things, such as distributing the ball for better shots.
“I’ve communicated with these guys and a lot of guys from last year, it’s not always about me scoring. If I get the double-team, somebody else is open which means I get somebody else a good shots,” the 26-year-old American said.
“We just want to get good shots.”
And those good shots led them to the victory and to a favorable spot in the mid-season tilt. The Texters, who improved to 6-1, now share the top spot of the team standings with the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.
Moreover, TNT also inched closer to a quarterfinal spot. Smith, however, doesn’t want to to set his sights far ahead, saying that they’re taking it a game at a time.
“I mean, I don’t wanna recollect in the past. Last year obviously when I was here, we made it to the Finals,” he recalled of the Finals, where they lost to the San Miguel Beermen. “But we gotta take it one game at a time.
“A lot of people don’t realize that in the first round we barely beat Meralco in overtime. We can’t look at the championship right now,” admitted Smith.
“We gotta look at our next opponent in Magnolia.”
