LOSS COULD BE BALM OR BANE FOR E-PAINTERS
A VERY bitter loss is a hard pill to swallow, but one that must be taken. Just ask Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao.
“It’s how you will face the adversity,” stated Guiao moments after his Elasto Painters’ 82-105 loss to Talk N Text last Wednesday that capped the Tropang Texters’ four-game sweep of their PBA Philippine Cup championship series at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“It can demoralize you if you let it. But at the same time it can also be a sort of motivation,” added Guiao. “You know it’s disappointing, you know it’s painful. But you also know you still have to work on a lot of things.
“From that perspective, pwede siyang maging positive effect. After a while you forget it. After a while it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s all a matter of how you carry the lessons.”
There are indeed a lot to be learned by the youth-laden team that fell way short in its bid to notch a second championship in as many conferences, utterly foiled by a TNT crew that found ways to win in each game and more so in the decider.
“Talk N Text deserves the championship. They played great on both ends, offensively and defensively,” admitted Guiao, before pointing out it was not all the Texters’ doing.
“I just feel that we didn’t play our best in terms of getting into the right mind-set,” he said. “We were just, siguro, totally out of the series mentally. We were falling into lapses, we were not focused on our execution. It’s a young team. Maybe that’s one of the reasons na medyo sabog yung focus. Knowing the team it’s not about Talk N Text. It’s about ourselves. We just didn’t come to the series mentally ready.”
Guiao is also willing to take some of the blame.
“I have to take responsibility for that because that’s part of my job as a coach, to prepare them mentally. Nawala yung edge namin, nawala yung quickness, nawala yung physicality. That’s not our normal mind-set, eh,” he said.
The final game score was the most lopsided in the series and Guiao said he saw it coming with the way his charges failed to play their usual fiery game they displayed so well in landing third place in the eliminations, disposing off Barangay Ginebra in three quarterfinal games and beating San Mig Coffee in six semifinal matches.
“From the very beginning (of the Finals). It’s really unusual. I don’t know what happened. Maybe for one or two games ganun ka. Pero four games, eh. Dire-diretso.
“Anyway, it happened. You have your good days, you have your bad days. It just so happened nag-dire-diretso yung bad days namin. Kanina alam mo nang hindi para sa iyo, the way they shot the ball. Hindi mo na mapipigilan iyung ganung klaseng momentum at saka tide. Kumbaga wave na. Kumbaga, no matter what you do… in that kind of a situation. It was really meant for them. So, meron talagang oras ka.”
It’s how one looks at it and Guiao has his own point of view. “Ako tingin ko dito hindi naman ako mawawala pa. Marami pa namang prizes diyan,” he quipped.
One such plum is the mid-season Commissioner’s Cup that kicks off Feb. 8 and Guiao is setting his sights on that following a one-week break for his team.
The days off should also be used to soothe the recent pains.
“We just need to put it behind us and focus on the next conference. I feel we have a good chance to contend,” said Guiao, before putting everything into perspective for his wards.
“Winning a first place trophy and a second place trophy in two conferences,” he pointed out. “Masama lang tingnan ngayon. Pero after a while, you got to the Finals while eight other teams did not. It’s really the way you look at it, and positive naman ang outlook namin.” (NC)
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