Rain or Shine head coach Yeng Guiao felt fulfilled to have made an import switch, as Pierre Henderson-Niles once again provided the Elasto Painters with what they needed against Barangay Ginebra: interior presence.
Henderson-Niles isn’t the type of import who will score big or stuff the stat-sheets, but Guiao says his heft plays a big role especially against an opponent with a towering frontline.
“It is a team effort. We are not asking our import to produce incredible numbers for us, but we just need them to be steady, and not get dominated in the middle. That was always our problem against Ginebra,” Guiao shared Sunday night after Rain or Shine had edged Ginebra in their best-of-three quarter-finals opener, 88-84.
“With an import as wide and strong as him, we are able to minimize that problem. He is not an import who will produce incredible numbers, but he keeps us steady. He gives us stability on the court.”
The Elasto Painters rallied from 19 points down to take Game One. Henderson-Niles tallied a double-double of 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting and ten rebounds. The reinforcement helped the team not just on the defensive end but also on offense, as the team involved him in pick-and-rolls to create open looks for the rest of the squad.
Jeff Chan and the Elasto Painters rallied back to take Game One (PBA Images)
“That’s what he brings to the team. He takes up a lot of space inside even if he does not score. He attracts a lot of attention and he made a lot of big rebounds towards the end. He put up a good match-up for Greg (Slaughter). Hopefully he can adjust to the system even more,” Chris Tiu added.
“Definitely, he can help us.”
Guiao added he felt lucky that Rain or Shine were able to hang on despite a disastrous first half, which saw the team trail, 35-16.
“I consider myself lucky that we kept ourselves in the game. If you saw the first quarter parang wala na kami eh. (But) we were in the game, we put ourselves back in the game, we gave ourselves a chance to win it (in the end) and that is what happened,” Guiao shared.
The team was able to fight back and close the first half on a 24-6 run to enter the break down by just a point, before eventually overcoming Ginebra in the end.
“It’s a hard struggle every time playing ginebra in the playoffs. We fell back by 19 but we just kept our focus. We played it possession per possession. We just hung in there and played with some patience,” Guiao said.
“We’ve been through this situation a couple of times and coach just trusts us that we can make the right decisions during times of crisis. We just had to settle down a little bit and go back to the system. At the start, we were not moving the ball, there was no flow, no rhythm,” Tiu added. “We just pushed the tempo and moved the ball because that gives us a chance of winning.”
