Rain or Shine was having a tough time putting a resilient Meralco team away on Wednesday night.
In the fourth quarter, Raymond Almazan committed a boneheaded mistake, and it prompted Elasto Painters head coach Yeng Guiao to go after his big man.
“Kaya ilalabas na kita eh!” Guiao exclaimed, warning Almazan he would be replaced. Fans laughed over Guiao’s antics, although no Elasto Painter really approached the scorer’s table.
It was all a timely tactic for Guiao to fire up Almazan; he let his ward play throughout and Almazan eventually scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, helping Rain or Shine by cleaning the glass and scoring putbacks.
“Wala naman sa akin yun, every time naman. Yung mental toughness ng player, yun ang mahirap kunin eh. Ako minsan kapag pinapagalitan ako ni coach, ayoko na magkamali ulit o marinig na sabihan niya ako ng ganun. Hindi naman sa nakakahiya pero pag paulit-ulit ka (nagkakamali), katangahan na yun eh,” Almazan shared later after Rain or Shine won, 97-87.
“Parang four games pa yung huling magandang laro ko e. Siguro ganyan tayong mga player minsan, hindi lagi maganda laro. Struggle minsan pero mas nagfocus ako.”
Almazan finished with a career-high 21 points on 6-for-7 shooting and added 17 boards, 8 of which were offensive rebounds.
In the conference, Almazan is enjoying career-highs of 11 PPG, 8.7 RPG, and 24.1 minutes/game so far.
The positive surge in the third year of his PBA career? It must be the motivation.
“Alam ko naman na style niya lang yun para i-motivate ang player niya. Maraming magaling na player na namotivate yan. Matakot ka kapag hindi ka na pinapansin. Masaya pa ako pag pinapagalitan,” he said.
