The misery continues for the Kia Picanto
The Barangay Ginebra-Kia Picanto match Wednesday night at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum ended at around 6:30 in the evening. But nearly two hours later, nobody from the Picanto side has yet to come out of their locker room.
Finally, at around 8:27 PM, players and coaches made their way out of the dugout. And despite the obvious disappointment in the team’s aura, there was one Picanto player who tried to lighten things about the lengthy stay.
“Tapos na misa,” quipped the player.
But for top assistant coach Chris Gavina, there is no time for any light moment right now. Their 99-120 loss to the Barangay moments earlier is now their fourth straight defeat in the 2017 Governor’s Cup, dropping them to 0-4.
And similar to what he did in their previous losses, the youthful mentor aired his disgust once more. But this time, what drew his ire the most was his wards’ lack of effort and sacrifice, especially on defense.
“I don’t care what we do on offense, because everybody can play offense. Not everyone was willing to sacrifice on defense, and the team that we played against every single game, there’s no layover in talent,” stressed Gavina.
But aside from defense, Gavina lashed out on his team’s lack of desire to win, which has been the problem he has been dealing with in their last games. In fact, it was the issue he addressed during the near-two-hour stay in the dugout.
“Me and coach Joe [Lipa] have been kind of stressing that the belief and the desire to win coincides with the effort,” said Gavina. “I basically told the guys that if you guys go into the game having a loser’s mentality, and why are we even practicing? Why do I watch some game tape? Why waste the effort?
“It needed to be addressed, and I walked down through every one of our players.”
With the Picanto at the bottom of the standings yet again, player movements might transpire next. Gavina shut down talks of such, but he is not closing the team’s doors on it either, if ever other teams send out feelers.
“We’re in-season, so I’m really focused on solution-based mindset,” said the coach. “So if it comes to that, I think it’s something that I’ll have to definitely discuss with management on what do we need, and what needs to be done.
“But right now, my focus is trying to get fifteen guys to really just believe in themselves and what I’m trying to preach to them.”
Kia’s schedule early in the season-ending conference is seemingly an unfriendly one. After facing the defending champions, they will next face Meralco this Sunday. Gavina knows it will be a tall order, but all he’s asking from his team is effort.
“We got Meralco next on Sunday, who’s as great as Ginebra. Or even better since they beat them.
“And if we don’t come in with the effort level and the lack of belief in ability to compete and win, we’ll get smashed again,” said Gavina.
