WE’VE BEEN HERE BEFORE – GUIAO
Though he saw their seven-game winning run snapped in Game 1 of their best-of-7 semifinal series against Alaska, it was quite surprising to see a cool Rain ot Shine coach Yeng Guiao emerging from their lockers Thursday night.
The fiery coach didn’t have the blazing words and just took the 87-80 loss in stride.
“Alam ko naman na binigyan na nila kami ng pitong sunod na panalo and sabi ko nga at some point mauubos ‘yung bwenas mo sa Alaska eh. Mabuting nataon ngayon,” Guiao said.
Despite leading early by as big as 17, the Elasto Painters floundered in the end and allowed the Aces to fire a killer 14-3 finishing kick to put the game away.
But Guiao isn’t ready to push the panic button just yet.
“May chance ka pang makarecover so okay na rin ‘yun. Kaya ‘di naman ako nagagalit. Siguro, it comes with the feeling that we will still be okay,” he said.
What bothered him more is Rain or Shine’s 12-rebound deficit against Alaska, 46-58.
“Yun ang concern namin. If there’s a problem we have in terms of statistics, it’s rebounding. We just have to figure out how to at least even up the rebounding between us and them,” Guiao said of his E-Painters, who haul down 47.36 rebounds per outing, sixth in the league. “Kahit di kami manalo, wag lang lumayo ng malaki kasi that’s extra possessions eh. In a close series like this, malaking bagay yun.”
But if there’s one thing that’s making Guiao optimistic, it is that in their last semifinal series against Alaska just last conference, they also dropped the opening game but went on to win 3-2.
He said, “We have to draw from our knowledge that we’ve been here before and we’ve been able to come out and finish the series in our favor.” (RL)
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