Bolts hope to finally end slide vs Elasto Painters
HIS team is on a dizzying downward spiral and Meralco coach Norman Black is being stretched to the limits of his wits trying to come up with a solution.
“We just have to keep on working, that’s all we can do at this point,” Black has said after his team
absorbed a fifth straight loss.
That tailspin has since been stretched to a league-worst six and Black and his Bolts must now do a lot of scrambling in order to keep alive their hopes of making it to the playoffs.
But standing huge in the way of Meralco is Rain or Shine, which is looking at a far loftier goal when they collide Friday in the PBA Philippine Cup at the Cuneta Astrodome.
The Elasto Painters are aiming to bounce back from a sorry loss their last time out while stoking their drive at keeping their second-running position and thus gain a twice-to-beat advantage in the quarterfinals following the 11-game eliminations.
“A test of character for our team coming off a loss that we could have won,” said Rain or Shine coach Caloy Garcia, referring to his team’s 101-107 overtime loss to San Miguel Beer.
Meralco, mired at the cellar along with NLEX, would be content enough just to make it among the top eight teams advancing to the next round, but has its work cut out for it.
In order to realize their goal and avoid outright elimination, the Bolts must not only win against the E-Painters but also against Star next Saturday and hope four wins would be enough to give them a crack at a playoff spot for the No. 8 seed.
Battling a team that is on the brink is cause for some dread on Garcia’s part.
“Meralco is no pushover. They may be in the bottom but they always play hard. It’s hard to play against a team with nothing to lose,” said Garcia.
Black is sure to have a gameplan worked out, although he is not one to divulge any details. A quick scan at his team’s last two games offer some insight.
The Bolts got torched by Mahindra’s 21 triples in a 92-105 loss last Wednesday, a statistic Black attributed to the Floodbuster’s offense but also to his charges’ “poor defense.”
Meralco then limited Barangay Ginebra to just a 31-for-79 clip from the field but themselves made just 19
of 72 shots that led to a 72-83 defeat last Saturday.
How to put together a better effort on both ends would be Meralco’s chief concern against a more balanced Rain or Shine squad.
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