Fernandez rues NLEX’s bad start in loss to TNT
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Even head coach Boyet Fernandez admitted he was surprised with NLEX’s slow start against TNT on Sunday.
“I’m surprised kasi what we did yesterday (Saturday) was just walkthrough and viewing. I want to conserve the legs of my players because we’re in a back-to-back,” he said.
Sluggish on the defensive end and paltry on the other side, the Road Warriors fell behind by as much as 27 and failed to complete their rally in an 85-80 loss.
“Wala naman kaming ginawa para mapagod ang players namin. Maybe it’s more of the mental preparation of my players kasi flat na flat eh. We tried to mix up the rotations, at least we came back, but it’s a flat start and we just have to learn from that,” said Fernandez.
That lack of preparation, Fernandez noted, was the beginning of his team’s downfall.
Even though Al Thornton and Garvo Lanete played a great second half, the huge deficit at the start was too deep of a hole to break out from.
“It’s more of telling the guys that if we’ll not dig a hole early, we’re still capable of winning a ballgame even if we’re playing against a strong team like TNT,” he said. “I just insisted to the players na we just have to make stops on defense, and we look a little bit on Al for our execution and try to attack on defense, get them to the penalty early kaya nakabalik kami.”
Still, Fernandez is positive NLEX can snap out of its funk and solve its woes when it comes to its consistency.
“The players’ mental preparation has to be there every game, and it’s just a matter of executing our game plan,” he said. “Konting konti pa na push para maging consistent kami. We’re trying to make things so that we’ll be consistent. It will take time, but we’ll get there.”
The Road Warriors (3-4) have to figure it out quick as they are in a three-way tie in eighth with Star and TNT.
“We just have to make the top eight and we’ll think about it when the playoffs come,” said Fernandez. “We’re looking at our defense, it was flat sa first half kaya nabaon kami. We have to start ng maayos.”
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