Last conference, first-year NLEX Road Warriors head coach Yeng Guiao could not hide his frustration with his new team. He had challenged them, threatened to trade each and everyone of them, and had even given them an hour-long tongue-lashing. Yet, the Road Warriors were still dead last in the standings with a 2-9 slate.
This conference, the Road Warriors are still at the bottom of the standings with an 0-4 slate. But this time around, NLEX have been putting up valiant fights — including a gallant stand against the league-leading Star Hotshots.
Though NLEX lost a heart-breaker, 105-103, the seven-time PBA champion coach commended the fight his team gave.
“It’s still the best game we’ve ever played so far. I’m disappointed we lost, but you have to appreciate the effort the guys put into this game,” Guiao said.
The Road Warriors were down by as many as 21 points in the first half and had to claw their way back into the game, eventually gaining a four-point lead with 1:56 left on the clock. However, Tony Mitchell was able to knot the game at 103-all with 30 ticks remaining.
Newest acquisition Rabeh Al-Hussaini missed on a hook shot, however, and it led to a Jiovani Jalalon buzzer-beater to steal the game and break NLEX’s hearts.
“We really wanted to get the ball to Rabeh to attack the import who had five fouls, but my instruction to him was that’s going to be the decoy play and he has to kick it out to our import. Pero nasarapan yata eh, bigla niyang tinira,” Guiao quipped about Al-Hussaini, who finished the game with six points in 24 minutes of action.
“[After the game] I gave him a piece of my mind. I told him I would rather lose on my own account rather than somebody not following instructions. But on the other hand, you also know that he’s not afraid to take the blame, so that’s also a good sign.”
But with their recent string of close games, the two-time Coach of the Year hopes that this leads to better outcomes in their last seven games of the elimination round.
“I hope so. It’s also a good start for Rabeh. He was able to play defense and score some big points, so the fact that he made a contribution offensively and defensively, and we played our best game, that should mean something in our future games,” the 58-year-old mentor elaborated.
“I hope it’s not too late. We’re just looking to give ourselves a chance at the playoffs, but we can probably win a few games if we’re able to stay all the way ‘til the endgame.”
And after months of frustration, the NLEX Road Warriors are finally understanding what coach Yeng Guiao is preaching.
