Not every Christmas season can be celebrated joyfully
And for the Yuletide season this 2016, the NLEX Road Warriors will be heading into the holiday break with gloom etched on each and every franchise member’s auras.
And the reason to be blamed for such bad Christmas is their match Friday night in which they lost to Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, 107-97, after leading all throughout the first three quarters.
After sustaining the upper hand from the first to the third canto, the Road Warriors succumbed to turnovers in the final period, committing 7 out of their 21 errors in the frame alone, helping RoS come from behind and snatch the win.
What is more painful with last night’s loss was not just the fact that they blew a double-digit lead and a possible skid-ender, but also the fact that their loss marks their fifth straight in six outings.
Road Warriors head coach Yeng Guiao lamented the team’s under-developed maturity, which was the case of their loss against his former team Rain or Shine.
“Medyo kulang pa kami sa team intelligence. Sa diskarte ba, kumbaga sa Pinoy,” said Guiao to the press moments after a lengthy post-game pep talk from.the locker room.
“‘Di mo naman puwedeng i-kalburo para mahinog. You have to go through trials, tribulations, and adversities in order to develop and mold yung character.”
Another story to Friday night’s match was Guiao facing his former team for the first time in years. But for the 57-year-old mentor, meeting his former team did not bring much emotions.
“Hindi naman ako emotional with respect to Rain or Shine. I just wanted to end the losing skid and not get ourselves to a deeper hole,” said Guiao, who took over RoS back in 2011.
As NLEX now heads to a long break in the holidays, Guiao aims to use the given layoff to have his team regroup and regain their bearings, for them to prepare better for the second half of the Philippine Cup.
“We’ll use the vacation to loosen up. Baka masyado kaming tight? Masyado kaming nape-pressure? Siguro this is a good time to just relax a little bit and take the PBA, the games out of our mind for the meantime,” he said.
