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SERVICES
THE INQUIRER COMPANY
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04
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23
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2024
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SERVICES
THE INQUIRER COMPANY
04
23
2024
San Miguel Beer coach Leo Austria knows Rain or Shine has just become a wounded tiger, making it doubly dangerous.
That explains why Austria maintains his Beermen must at least match the Elasto Painters’ efforts when the two teams clash again Thursday in the resumption of their Smart Bro-PBA Philippine Cup semifinals series at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“Hindi na p’wede iyung mga lapses namin,” said Austria the morning after his crew came from behind to steal a 109-105 victory at the start of the best-of-seven series last Tuesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“We know na gigil silang makabalik sa amin kaya kailangan handa kami. We cannot avoid a bad start like we had in Game 1,” added Austria.
“Iyung panalo na ganoon will never happen again.”
Austria was referring to the fact SMB was able to fight back after staring at as much as a 22-point third quarter deficit and going into the fourth behind by 71-91.
“No more bad start,” reiterated Austria. “Iyung energy, hustle, kailangan sa umpisa pa lang nandoon na and then we must sustain those for the entire game.”
That is exactly what Rain or Shine plans on doing after outing the bitter experience behind it, as coach Yeng Guiao has ordered.
“We just need to put this behind us. It’s a very disappointing loss, but it’s a long series,” said Guiao following the opener.
“We just have to prepare tomorrow and come back Thursday and learn from the lessons of today,” added Guiao. “We don’t want this game to stop us from doing what we need to do.”
Only a little tinkering is needed by Rain or Shine and mostly on how to solve SMB’s quick-scrambling defense that fully clicked into high gear in the second half of the opener.
After torching the Beermen with a scorching 27-for-47 field shooting in the first half, the E-Painters started struggling from the field by going 9-for-22 and committing nine turnovers in the third period. A 10-0 surge to end the penultimate canto jacked the lead back up to 20, but Guiao’s charges completed their collapse by making just six of 18 shots and turning the ball over six more times.
Meanwhile, June Mar Fajardo, Ronald Tubid, Arwind Santos and Chris Ross towed SMB back, culminating in a Ross surprise triple that gave it a 108-105 lead, 1:32 to go.
Rain or Shine had several chances to score but came up empty as Paul Lee, finally in action after a pre-season knee injury, committed two turnovers and rattled out on a triple try and Jeff Chan was just short on a triple try in the last four seconds.
Beau Belga and JR Quinahan each finished with 19 points but combined for only seven in the second half while Chan, Rain or Shine’s top scorer coming into the game, missed all his four attempts to go scoreless for only the first time in the conference.
Another ploy is needed to better contain Fajardo’s support crew. Fajardo wound up with 36 points, 18 rebounds and five blocked shots, but Santos’ 19 points, 17 rebounds and five assists were of immense help along with Tubid scoring 11 of his 15 points and Ross making all seven of his points in the fourth while finishing with a career-high seven steals.
The outputs by Tubid and Ross helped the Beermen narrow the gap to 34-51 in bench scoring.
“Sixty percent ng points ng Rain or Shine come from their bench while sa amin 60% come from our starters,” related Austria. “I told my players na if our starters are playing well you have to sustain it.”
Guiao still found plenty of positives from their most recent loss. “To be able to lead for the most part of the game, there’s really a chance to beat San Miguel,” he said.
“Actually, the game was ours to lose. For three quarters we were in the lead and we can’t blame anybody but ourselves. We should take the lesson of this game and be a better team on Thursday.” (NC)
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