Sometimes, it’s the little things that make a huge difference.
The NLEX Road Warriors tried to overcome a mountain after the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters erected a 29-point lead in the third period, but faltered in the end with execution and a few miscues on the defensive end.
John Wilson and Asian import Michel Madanly were at the forefront of the NLEX onslaught, combining for 22 of the 36 points the Road Warriors poured in the fourth, although both still believed the 102-106 loss Wednesday was a result of the previous mistakes that they committed which allowed the Elasto Painters to break the game wide open in the first place.
“Defense and sharing the basketball,” Wilson quipped of NLEX’s lethargic first half. “Walang flow ‘yung offense tapos hindi pa maka-stop sa defense.”
“We were there. I believed we will win the game but it’s the game. We cannot guarantee anything. We cannot get 30 points down and expect to win the game. Rain or Shine is a championship team,” Madanly added.
NLEX fell by as much as 29, 55-84 after allowing Rain or Shine too many transition attacks and wide open threes, although little by little threw jabs that kept them in the match.
Down by 20 entering the fourth, the Road Warriors leaned on the hot shooting of the wing guys, coupled with a zone defense that limited the Elasto Painters’ outside attempts.
“Noong nagsimula pumasok mga shots ko I called Rico [Villanueva] for the pick and roll then nagtuloy-tuloy na. We had the momentum na,” Wilson said.
“We played better defense and started to make our shots. We started making stops and everyone was scoring,” Madanly said.
While the frustration was evident, both players saw a silver lining, and hopes the team can improve on the said aspects to not fall the next time around.
“It’s frustrating. Great plays can solve that and that is what we did. We have to think one game at a time and we can still make it for the others,” Madanly shared.
“We needed to play defense. Although kinapos sa huli, sabi ni Coach Boyet [Fernandez] heads up lang,” Wilson added.
