Heading into the season, Kia Picanto head coach Chris Gavina and his team had chips on their shoulders. Their goal is to vindicate the controversial off-season transaction they had figured in.
Based on what he had seen from the Picanto during their loss against the NLEX Road Warriors in their opener, Gavina has become confident that his squad can meet that goal.
“If we can do this against NLEX, we can do this against anybody,” said the youthful bench strategist moments after their narrow 115-119 defeat, Wednesday night at the FilOil Flying V Center. “That’s our mindset going in.
“We showed our grit tonight. We showed a great deal of character in being able to keep up with what I feel is one of the contenders coming into this conference.”
Except for that end-game collapse that started from Larry Fonacier’s stunning four-point play, Kia did a tremendous job of keeping up with NLEX for majority of the match — they were even able to post double-digit leads a handful of times, including a game-high 13-point lead during the second frame.
But, for Gavina, it was the little things that spelled the difference in their season opener. Hustle-wise, he strongly feels that things are starting to come together.
“Effort-wise, we were there. It just came down to they executed better than us,” said the 38-year-old strategist. “For us to control the time with the lead… Goes to show that we’re more than capable of keeping up with a high-scoring team like that.”
Despite all the positives he saw, Gavina was quick to remind that lessons have to be learned yet again after the loss.
“Our effort level and our focus have to increase,” said Gavina.
“We can’t have any letdowns just because of this close game — bottomline is we didn’t win and we got to able to be lot hungrier next game against Phoenix.”
Gavina then headed out of the venue wearing an Under Armour shirt with the phrase “PROVE THEM WRONG” emblazoned on the front. The amiable coach said that he had worn the shirt to serve as a reminder of their mantra this season.
“I wore this for a reason today. I told everybody, ‘Prove everybody wrong today.’ I told them you have no idea how many people have doubted us.”
