AS far as Magnolia coach Chito Victolero is concerned, there are no easy games in the ongoing PBA Philippine Cup.

While the Hotshots finished a strong second in the recent Commissioner's Cup, Victolero recognized the fact that the rest of the teams in the all-Filipino conference have shown improvement, which made the competition tougher.

"Our backs are against the wall. We don't want to fall to 1-3 (win-loss record). All teams have improved, like Terrafirma, Blackwater, NLEX and NorthPort," Victolero told media men, moments after Magnolia hacked out a 104-97 triumph over the Batang Pier on Wednesday.

The Magnolia coach knows with tougher competition comes grind-out matches, which he feels will also be good for the pro league considering that the PBA has been suffering a setback as far as low gate attendance is concerned.

"This is good for the PBA, for the fans and I hope the competition, because it's really good," he added.

Victolero noted that Terrafirma, a team that has missed the playoffs for the past 17 conferences, has pushed the defending champion to the brink, before eventually dropping a narrow 113-110 decision.

But just a few days before facing the Beermen, the Dyip pulled the rug from under the Barangay Ginebra Kings, 91-85, for the franchise's fourth win, moving the team closer to a playoff spot in the process.

"Well, I hope the league (competition) gets better until the end because we can see the competition is really tight. You can see that from the first game. That's the PBA," said Victolero.

The Hotshots' seven-point win ended the team's two-game slide to move to eighth spot with their 2-2 record.

The Magnolia mentor's viewpoint was something TNT coach Chot Reyes also observed, shortly after the Tropang Giga scored a narrow 92-90 win over the Meralco Bolts last Sunday.

Reyes, the many-time Gilas mentor, admitted TNT is no longer the once "mighty TNT" that PBA fans have always known.

TNT started the tournament with a 3-3 record.