Shawn Taggart was clearly disappointed with the way the whistles were blown on Wednesday night, as the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters suffered their first loss of the 2017 Commissioner’s Cup at the hands of the Meralco Bolts.
“I don’t know what I can really say about the officiating. That’s about it,” said the 32-year-old American with a chuckle, shortly after their 89-83 defeat, snapping their three-game winning streak in the process.
“I mean, two of the biggest teams in the conference, and you would think that the referees will either let you play, or they will call on both sides. But, it didn’t work out that way tonight.”
The calls clearly went from bad to worse come the game’s final period. From offensive interference that became goal-tending violations, to obvious body contacts mid-air that were not called, it was a frustrating night for both teams.
Asked if there were any particular calls made by the referees that had drawn his ire, the six-foot-nine Taggart did not voice out anything, but instead spoke regarding the officiating in a more general manner.
“I’m sure y’all can tell me the calls y’all didn’t agree with. It’s going to be the same calls I don’t agree with,” shared the straightforward Taggart.
“But like I said, it’s not my job to critique the referees. That’s between whoever’s on top of them to do that, and I hope that they have a sit-down with them and have a real conversation about what’s a foul and what’s not, and what’s right and what’s wrong.”
“That’s for them to figure out. I’m here to play basketball. I can’t do their job,” elaborated the former Globalport Batang Pier reinforcement.
But aside from the officiating, Taggart lamented that it was largely Rain or Shine’s poor shooting that cost them the game. After averaging a 43.5 percent shooting clip in their first three games, RoS suddenly fired blanks, shooting just 31 percent.
“We didn’t make shots. We missed a lot of open shots,” said Taggart.
“We made a couple of big stops, but a couple of stops we didn’t make hindered us as well,” he added, referring to the short-handed comeback RoS had in the final minute that saw them rise from ten points down.
For Taggart, he still managed to put up his usual numbers, scoring 27 points along with 13 rebounds. But he misfired from the floor and especially from beyond the arc, as he only went 2-for-9 — 3-for-19 for the conference.
“I’ve been struggling from the three-point line since I got here,” admitted Taggart.
“I’ve been shooting shots in practice, so hopefully that will translate to the game soon. We’ll see.”
