DEFENSIVE ENERGY NEEDED FOR GAME 6
With Rain or Shine’s back against the wall, all coach Yeng Guiao can do is look forward to Sunday’s all important Game 6 tussle.
“We just want to win one more game and after that, if we’re able to succeed, all bets are off,” he said on the heels of the Elasto Painters’ 103-94 Game 5 defeat, which dropped ROS to a 2-3 hole in the best-of-seven Finals.
“When Game 7 is there, it’s a tossup. We have a big game on Sunday. I’m just hoping that we bring our defensive energy on Sunday,” Guiao added.
The mercurial mentor admitted that their defense was a letdown in Friday’s duel, as the Rain or Shine defense allowed Talk ‘N Text to shoot 49 percent from the field, spiced by 11 threes.
“We really did not put out the kind of defensive effort that we wanted and we needed. I’m kind of disappointed that we were always half a step slow, one full step behind. There just was no aggressiveness on defense, (and that’s) one reason why we got broken down on defense by Ranidel (de Ocampo), (Jayson) Castro, and the import,” Guiao said. “They’re really a good offensive team that anytime you put your guard down on defense, they’re going to take advantage. That’s what happened today. We’ll see if we can fix that tomorrow so that we can be able to play defense on Sunday.”
Guiao also admitted that the troika of Johnson, de Ocampo, and Castro terrorized them despite the flashes of defensive brilliance they had in this game, as the three combined for 69 points in the Tropang Texters victory.
“They just shot the ball well. I thought there were certain occasions that the effort was there, we were challenging their shots, but they were still making them,” he said.
Guiao then reminded his wards to stay their course and keep on defending, if they want to extend the series to a winner-take-all affair come Wednesday.
“When that happens, you cannot get down on yourself. It’s just being in the game mentally. Even if they’re making their shots which are challenged, the next play, you still have to keep on challenging. We were not relentless and we were not consistent on the effort we should have put out in this game,” Guiao said.
With Talk ‘N Text in the cusp of taking the title on Sunday, Guiao believes that the E-Painters have to remind themselves of their feisty underdog mentality, saying, “Maybe we’re just trying to live up to our tags as underdogs.”
“It would be nice to see a Game 7. We’re just trying to win one and force a Game 7, and we cannot do that if we don’t play defense on Sunday.” (RL)
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