LOOKING FOR A STRONG FINISH
At 6-2, Rain or Shine is on a four-game winning run, with its latest victim being the NLEX Road Warriors on Tuesday.
Even coach Yeng Guiao is proud of what his team has accomplished after a bad start to their season. However, the job is not yet done.
“We’re still on our winning run. We recovered from a bad start this conference and what we wanted to do is to end this elimination round on a strong finish,” Guiao said.
The fiery bench strategist is wary of the implications at the top of the standings, with Alaska and San Miguel, both at 7-1, currently holding prime position to snag the top two spots.
“Syempre yung dalawang team na leading ang teams to beat. Alaska is playing well, San Miguel is playing well, and I’m sure teams like Purefoods, Talk ‘N Text, and Ginebra, makakaangat din yan. They’re slowly gaining their ground and medyo nakakatakot nga yan, deceptive,” he said. “You see that they’re struggling right now, but they can turn it on. Pag nakakuha ng stride nila, mahirap din talunin.”
Adding to coach Yeng’s woes are the scars of their three losses, as well as the injuries the team has suffered, with guys like Chris Tiu, Jervy Cruz, and Jeff Chan sitting out games. But in spite of that, the Elasto Painters still found a way to string up four straight victories to once again place themselves with the contenders.
“Kami naman, we did not really have a good start. Pero itong last three games namin, kung magagamit namin yung momentum sa winning streak and we could have a few more players healthy, we’ll be fine,” he said.
Ever the feisty one, the Rain or Shine coach said that they will still gun for the automatic semis berths no matter how hard the task might be, saying, “Maybe we can give it a run for the outright semis, but we have three tough games ahead of us. It’s a tall order for us but we will keep on trying.”
“As long as we’re winning, we’re ok. Madapa ka lang minsan, tingin ko wala na eh. Kami siguro, may 15 or 20-percent chance, but we need to beat Purefoods, we need to beat Alaska, and we need to beat Ginebra. And to beat those three teams in the next 10 days, it’s going to be tough, not just on us but for any team naman. Kung yun ang last three games mo, mahirap sabihing tatalunin mo lahat. But we need to win all three games eh.”
“Pero kung ano man yung mangyayari, at least andun kami sa 3 or 4 maybe, it’s still good for us.” (RL)
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