By REYNALD MAGALLON
Rain or Shine assured it got Beau Belga’s back amid trying times as the veteran big man takes a balancing act of doing his playoff duties while also dealing with some personal issues outside the court.
Elasto Painters head coach Yeng Guiao was not pushing Belga too hard to contribute after his performance made a visible dip in the playoffs as compared to his solid showing in the eliminations.
The 37-year-old forward was averaging 17.6 points per contest through the first 11 games of the conference but it dipped to 5.5 points in the quarterfinals.
“Mayroon ding pinagdadaaanang personal si Beau so we just want him to focus on trying to contribute kung ano ma-contribute niya,” said Guiao.
Belga, himself, later on revealed that he had to fly to the province right after Game 1 to attend to his sick mother. A true professional that he is, Belga still flew back to Manila in the morning of Game 2 to rejoin the team.
“Kakabalik nya lang galing probinsya di sya nakapag-practice, lipad siya papunta dun tapos lipad siya pabalik ulit so medyo iba yung rhythm nya ,yung routine niya, but we’ll be patient with him,” Guiao said of Belga who was scoreless in the first half but had six points in the last two quarters.
Fortunately, ROS got some solid contributions from Keith Datu who is slowly finding his way back to top form after missing a significant amount of time due to a knee injury. He finished with six points on two triples but botched some shots from point blank range.
Good thing, though, Belga’s mom is now getting better and Rain or Shine pulled off a 121-112 win to extend the series to a winner-take-all Game 3.
The prospect of Belga getting back to his usual self and Datu showing improvement game-by-game excites Guiao.
“Kung maibalik ni Beau yung laro niya tas paangat yung laro ni Keith I think that would be good for us,” he added.
