FINALS WILL BE WON IN 5 GAMES – COACH YENG
Two semifinal series in the PLDT Home Telpad PBA Governors’ Cup had gone the distance with San Mig Super Coffee and Rain or Shine outlasting their respective rivals.
Fiery Elasto Painters mentor Yeng Guiao expects the same when his wards face the grand slam seeking Coffee Mixers in the best-of-five championship series that begins on Tuesday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
“The series is going to be won in Game Five,” Guiao told pba.ph in an exclusive interview. “It’s going to be very close.”
“Yung semis, I think they went through two overtimes doon sa series na yun. Kami naman, we went to one overtime. Baka iko-combine mo yun sa Finals series magiging tatlong overtime. Ganun ka-close ko nakikita yung Finals series.”
But while Guiao expects the series to go the distance, he expects his Elasto Painters as the underdogs.
“There should not be any pressure on them because they already played a great year. This is just the icing on the cake,” said Guiao.
“That should actually make them a little bit more relaxed in terms of dealing with the pressure.”
Although the pressure is building up for the Mixers to win the grand slam, there’s more sense of urgency for Rain or Shine to win the championship.
“Mas gigil nga kami kasi wala pa kaming championship this year. So dapat mas relaxed sila kaysa sa amin,” he added.
But Guiao believes both teams have equal chances of winning.
“Kung five game series siya, I think neither team has the advantage or disadvantage. We’re both relatively healthy. Sa amin ang wala lang si JR Quinahan. Sa kanila naman they’re all healthy. So, it’s almost even in terms of games played,” said Guiao.
But Guiao, who is looking to win his seventh league title, doesn’t see San Mig Coffee’s number of games played as a disadvantage for the Mixers, who have been in the Finals in four conferences straight, including this season-ending conference.
“They played more games than we have. Pero, I think among other PBA teams, we are the second team that played the most games,” said Guiao. “Konting diperensiya lang yun so I don’t think it will be a factor in the series.” (RJ)
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