BY REYNALD MAGALLON
An improvement no matter how small should be enough for Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao to be happy even as they suffered a semifinals exit in the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup.
The Elasto Painters bowed to the TNT Tropang Giga, 4-1, a slight improvement to the team’s showing in the last season’s Philippine Cup where they also made it to the semifinals but got swept by the San Miguel Beermen.
“I’m totally at peace with the accomplishment we’ve had at this conference. We’ve been in the semis twice in a row so at least, that’s an indication of some degree of consistency,” said Guiao after his team absorbed a 113-95 defeat at the hands of TNT, putting an end to their campaign.
ROS, however, despite the semis exit, still made quite a stir in the conference, topping a group that featured powerhouses San Miguel and Barangay Ginebra and even taking down Magnolia in the quarterfinals through five games.
A young team like the Elasto Painters would only benefit from this type of experience according to Guiao.
“Ang sakin kasi the more games you play, the more experience you earn, the more lessons you learn so kung nakapaglaro pa kami ng ilang laro mas nakakabuti,” said Guiao pointing out that his team played a total of 20 games this conference, 10 of which were pressure-packed games in the playoffs.
The Elasto Painters proved to be no pushovers even in the playoffs, even actually giving themselves a chance against the Tropang Giga when they came close at tying the series in Game 4.
Guiao said there’s still plenty of room for improvements for ROS especially at how they struggled in the three-point shooting department in the series, as well as their ability to defend against prolific imports like Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.
Another semifinal stint would be the benchmark for Guiao and the Elasto Painters next conference, hoping that this time, they finally breakthrough with the series win.
“We’ll have to make semis again, kung nung unang semis 4-0 kami, second semis namin 4-1, baka yung next semis namin 4-2 na kami, improve pa rin,” said Guiao in jest.
