E-PAINTERS, BOLTS HOPE TO RISE ON EASTER SUNDAY
MERALCO has gotten its first taste of a Final 4 appearance and found it too sour for its liking.
The Bolts are hoping they would be having at least a sweeter flavor on their tongues when they collide anew with Rain or Shine Sunday in the resumption of their PBA Commissioner’s Cup semifinal duel at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The Elasto Painters took the best-of-five opener, 99-86, last Tuesday and would be gunning for a 2-0 series lead which few teams have ever come back from.
“A win in Game 2 gets us one foot inside the (Finals) door,” noted E-Painters chief tactician Yeng Guiao. “It will by no means be easy because Meralco will be ready. It will come out harder at us but we are ready to match their intensity.”
Indeed, Meralco coach Norman Black said his crew would do everything it could to avoid falling into such a hole. “Definitely a must-win situation for us,” he said. “The last thing you want to do is go down 0-2 in a best-of-five series.”
Black added that the seeming jitters his Bolts experienced in their first appearance in a semis of this format are now things of the past.
Prior to this tournament, Meralco made it to the semis in the 2012 Governors’ Cup. But that was when six teams advanced.
“Hopefully we have tasted what it feels like to be in the semis and we will respond better and with more energy in Game 2,” said Black, whose team only had a one-day rest between its quarterfinal series with NLEX and the semis’ Game 1.
In order for the protagonists to realize their immediate goals, some fine-tuning in their respective gameplans are needed.
Rain or Shine lost the battle off the boards, 35-49, but more than made up for it by scoring more points in the paint, 50-30, and in transition, 26-2.
“The things we have to do well remain the same. We must slow down their fastbreaks and do a better job versus their pick-and-roll offense,” said Black.
“Rebounding was our main problem in Game 1. We hope to get better at it this time,” said Guiao, who drew only a combined nine rebounds from centers Beau Belga, JR Quinahan and Raymund Almazan.
“Our defense also held up so we need to replicate the same effort,” added Guiao.
Meralco sure can use better shot selection in order to bounce back from a 30-for-77 field shooting to Rain or Shine’s 32-for-68 clip in Game 1.
The Bolts must also find ways to ease more of the pressure off Josh Davis, who went into the series opener averaging 21.5 points and 20.5 rebounds but got stymied to just 11 and 15.
More effective screens and picks must also be given Gary David as he scored a team-high 14 points but got limited to just 16 shots.
Wayne Chism is an entirely different story for Rain or Shine as he finished with a game-high 18 points on top of 14 boards and got plenty of local support, mainly from Paul Lee and Gabe Norwood. (NC)
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