Belga ready to suit up for E-Painters in crucial game 4
Rain or Shine burly center Beau Belga woke up Wednesday morning feeling good on his injured ankle.
And he insisted he’s ready to suit up.
On Monday, the Elastopainters coach Yeng Guiao hinted at bringing back Belga with hopes of drawing help from the injury-stricken player in their bid to force a deciding Game Five in their PBA Governors Cup Final Four showdown with the San Miguel Beermen.
“He’s not going to be 100 percent. But if he’s 75 or 80 percent, that’s good enough for us,” said Guiao to stress their need for able bodies at the frontcourt.
Rain or Shine’s frontline has been badly decimated with Belga smarting from a sprained ankle and Jervy Cruz nursing a fractured toe sustained in a freak accident at home.
Injuries to the two have caused the Elasto Painters so much matchup problem versus the Beermen who have solid rotations practically on all spots.
The Beermen have been doing a lot of damage from the quartercourt with the E-Painters needing to clog on SMB behemoth Junemar Fajardo down low.
“Our problem is really if we don’t extend out on the shooters, Junemar and AZ (Reid) are going to eat up our defenders, but if we sag on them, we’re giving enough space for the shooters,” said Guiao.
Managing their fouls could help.
“Early fouls on Raymond (Almazan) and JR (Quinahan) forced us to take Wendell (McKines) out of AZ (Reid) and put him on Fajardo, something which we really don’t want because we want AZ being defended by McKines. It’s just so comfortable for AZ being defended by Gabe (Norwood) or Jireh (Ibanes),” Guiao pointed out after Game Three.
“We were forced out of that matchup because we were trying to preserve our bigs and we are short of bigs especially against Fajardo,” Guiao added.
That’s why the fiery ROS mentor is hopeful on Belga’s return in Game Four.
“Hopefully with the win last Game 2 we were able to buy some time for Beau to get back into playing and maybe try to extend the series with a healthy big man. Palagay ko naman kung andiyan si Beau malaki parin problema namin pero di kasing laki kung wala si Beau,” said Guiao.
“Maybe if we have Beau, we don’t have to collapse on Junemar that much,” Guiao added. (SB)
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer & other 70+ titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download as early as 4am & share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.
