E-PAINTERS HOPE TO MAKE IT SHORT & SWEET
Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao honestly feels they don’t get much luxury as the playoff top seed while finding Barangay Ginebra San Miguel as the No. 8 team.
“This is a team capable of beating us twice. So we have to be very careful, we have to play with a sense of urgency,” said Guiao on the eve of their quarterfinals showdown in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup at the Mall of Asia in Pasay City Saturday.
“I don’t feel like we have an advantage as the No.1, even with a twice-to-beat and even if we beat them in our previous game,” Guiao insisted.
“With us being seeded No. 1 and you have to play a Ginebra team as No. 8, it’s not really a No. 8 team in terms of their capability,” Guiao added.
The Elasto Painters and the Kings clash at 5:15 p.m. in the most anticipated duel among all quarters pairings in the mid-season tourney.
It’s just hard to take the Kings for granted with all their successes playing under tremendous pressure.
For the record, Ginebra has won three quarters playoffs facing a team with a twice-to-beat advantage. One of those was against Rain or Shine itself in the 2013 Commissioner’s Cup.
Guiao was surprised the Kings ended up the eighth seeds in this tourney.
“It’s hard to believe that they are the No. 8 team in this playoffs,” said Guiao. “We know we have to take it in Game One, or else the momentum will quickly shift on Ginebra’s side.”
The Elasto Painters anticipate a battle especially with the Kings aching to avenge their sorry loss in the elims where they bungled a huge 18-point spread.
“Ginebra is aching to get back at us, especially the crowd. It won’t be anything less than we first played Ginebra. We expect more and we take it as motivation,” said Guiao.
Beau Belga braces for his personal battle with the Ginebra fans, following their incident the last time where he drew a hefty fine of P70,000.
He said he’s ready to take everything that will be thrown by the Ginebra crowd.
Meanwhile, the Kings, even with a doubtful starter in Japeth Aguilar, are hopeful they can force a rubber match.
“Para lang best-of-three ‘yan at nakauna sila,” said Ginebra coach Ato Agustin.
The Kings slid down to eighth after losing their last match against Alaska and ending up with the lowest quotient in a tiebreak with the Aces and the Barako Bull Energy. (SB)
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