ONE-way traffic. With its quick pace and explosive firepower, TNT proved too much for Meralco at least in the kickoff of their PBA Governors' Cup Final Four faceoff Friday at the Ynares Sports Center in Antipolo.

The Tropang Giga blasted off the starting block and hardly slowed down in a dominant wire-to-wire 110-80 win over the Bolts in Game One of the best-of-five series.

Asserting themselves as the top seeds, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and his teammates opened a double-digit spread right in the first quarter, 31-19, and led by as many as 33 on the way to stretching their hot, hot streak to a 10th straight game.

It was a lopsided win for the Tropa, but coach Jojo Lastimosa wouldn't allow his troops to drop down their guard just yet.

He has a lot of respect to Meralco coach Norman Black, knowing "he's been there for a long time, he's won a lot and he knows how to adjust in this kind of situation."

With just a day's break, the two teams slug it out in Game Two in the same playing venue at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

Lastimosa said the big key in their Game One massacre was them coming in ready to match the Bolts' intensity, energy and effort.

"I was just surprised that it looked like Meralco was lacking a bit of energy maybe because they came off an emotional victory and maybe they a little bit on a high, and there's a lot of reason," said Lastimosa.

Whatever it was, the Tropang Giga ripped the Bolts into pieces, with Hollis-Jefferson and RR Pogoy leading the TNT juggernaut.

BARANGAY Ginebra drew some inspiration from the presence of ailing skipper LA Tenorio to hurdle San Miguel Beer, 121-112, Friday at the start of their PBA Governors' Cup semifinals duel at the Ynares Center in Antipolo.

Christian Standhardinger, Jamie Malonzo and Justin Brownlee were foremost among the Gin Kings who played the hardest, spurred on no end by the mere presence of Tenorio who still showed up and offered words of encouragement to his team from the sidelines despite an ongoing battle with colon cancer.

"It's a great honor that he is with us and doing things he wants to do while he's doing the things he needs to do," said Ginebra coach Tim Cone in referring to Tenorio's presence which he partly credited to his crew gaining the headstart in the best-of-five series.

"So I feel honored that he's spending this time with us. He is so valuable, he's a leader and he's been our leader in the time that I've been here and even when I was still with Alaska," added Cone. "I just find it really selfless on his part to be here and I think the whole team feels that."

Cone also admitted Tenorio's continued presence should serve as additional spur for the team moving forward. "Of course, we're doing this for LA," he stated. "He honors us by his presence and we hope to honor him by continuing to play hard and playing in his image."

But not to forget that Ginebra needs to work on some kinks in its game that enabled SMB, which trailed by as much as 69-90 in the third quarter to quickly raze an 80-95 deficit at the end of the third period with a 15-0 blitz to start the final canto.

A Cone timeout promptly restored order for Ginebra as Malonzo boomed in a triple and Standhardinger strung up four straight points that pushed the Gin Kings back ahead before Brownlee, Stanley Pringle and Scottie Thompson joined in to stretch back up to 119-108.

"You never can count them out. I think that's the lesson that we need to take out of this game even though it was a happy end for us," said Standhardinger, who finished with a game-high 33 points on top of 10 rebounds and five assists.

"Even if you're up 15, 20 you gotta keep pushing and we gotta take it very, very serious because they've got so many good shooters, so many great scorers," added the Fil-German center.

"So I think that's the big lesson that we need to get out of it and that is to keep pushing and keep playing the best defense we can play."