The Rain or Shine ElastoPainters. Photo from PBA Images.MANILA — The Rain or Shine ElastoPainters fell short of moving past the loss that snapped its five-game winning streak and instead suffered two straight defeats for the first time in the PBA Season 49 Commissioner’s Cup.
The Yeng Guiao-mentored team was dumped by Alec Stockton and the Converge FiberXers, 103-96, in their Tuesday evening faceoff at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium in Manila.
READ: Stockton takes charge in the fourth to power Converge over Rain or Shine
“We were struggling for the past few days, past few games, and ngayon nga na-emphasize pa lalo dahil na-eject ako,” the fiery mentor said before leaving the venue as they fell to 5-3 in the team standings.
Guiao received two consecutive technical fouls midway through the third period when the E-Painters were mounting a double-digit comeback, and while his troops were fired up and even briefly retook the lead, the veteran coach said that the calls were just too costly for his team.
“Yung calls ng referees, apat yung pinapa-confirm namin sa committee, apat na mali eh,” he shared. “Hindi makatarungan eh. Apat na bad calls all going against us, so we felt na apektado na yung momentum at yung morale so I had to express my disgust doon sa situation.”
“Madalas ko namang sabihin na we should be able to engage with the officials [and tell them] to do their jobs better. It comes to a point where the results of the game are affected. Sa isang malamig ang laro, ‘pag magkakaroon ka ng apat na bad calls, malaking bagay yun. That could cost you six to eight points.”
“It will pause your momentum, your morale will go down, eh importanteng laro pa naman ‘to sa amin. Pero wala ka namang magagawa, tatanggapin mo na lang yung resulta and try to do better next time,” he added.
Instead of getting the solo second spot with only four games left on their elimination round calendar, RoS saw themselves fall to seventh place which is among the two least desirable spots from the eight quarterfinals tickets.
Still, Coach Yeng is optimistic that they could eventually climb up, and at the very least, avoid a twice-to-beat disadvantage come playoff time.
“5-3 yung record namin, so focus muna kami na maka-iwas sa No.7 and 8. Focus muna kami doon,” he pointed out.
“We’re still confident naman. Para talagang rollercoaster yung sitwasyon namin. Nung nanalo kami, we were seeing good signs, nung natatalo na kami, we were seeing bad signs, so we have to balance it. We need to balance how to get our momentum back, kasi test pa rin naman ito. This is a character test for us, and it’s still very manageable.”
For now, what Rain or Shine needs to do, said Guiao, is to quickly regain its footing and apply the lessons that it has gotten in its two straight losses.
“As long as we can arrest our losing skid early, I think kaya naman namin yung sitwasyon,” offered the Kapampangan coach.
“Sabi ko, wag muna namin isipin yung placing para safe kami. Dikit-dikit lang eh, so first things first, we need to get ourselves into the playoffs, and then we’ll see where we are at yung best finish that we can get,” he ended.
Up next for Guiao and Rain or Shine is the league-leading NorthPort Batang Pier whom they will be facing on Thursday, 5:00 p.m., at the PhilSports Arena in Pasig City.
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