It’s never easy losing key cogs to injuries, but Sunday night proved to be a harsh reminder of how much Rain or Shine missed Felix Lemetti following the beatdown it received from Ginebra in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Sunday.
What was thought to be a playoff-like matchup became a one-team show in the Kings’ favor, as they shot the lights out from deep while limiting the run-and-gun Elasto Painters to only nine fastbreak points toward the masterful 114-90 victory.
It was easily their lowest in this conference after averaging 24.6 points off transition before the rivalry affair. And a major reason behind that was not having the pesky playmaker, who’s been the team’s pace-setter.
“Sayang lang; actually Felix got injured again at the time when his game was peaking eh,” head coach Yeng Guiao said moments after the defeat at the SMART Araneta Coliseum, which was already their second in a row.
“Yun yung nawala sa amin eh, ‘no? Plus ‘yung pace that he gives us, and the defense, and the quickness,” added the champion bench tactician.
Lemetti was without a doubt one of RoS’ top players during its fiery 7-0 start in the midseason joust until a right knee injury—later found to be a partial ACL tear—sidelined him for the rest of the tournament, at least.
Without him, the Elasto Painters have struggled to maintain the same pace they had when he was still around. After bowing to the now-2-seed Kings, they’ve now lost thrice in their last four outings, dropping to 8-3 in the process.
(C) PBA Images
In all fairness, they still managed to average 23.0 points in their first three outings sans the 27-year-old Fil-Swede, but it was really against the crowd darlings where his presence could’ve made a lot of difference.
Guiao, however, refuses to make excuses whatsoever, adding that it also became difficult for his men to keep up with a Ginebra team that shot extremely well, most especially from deep, as evidenced by the 21 triples it buried.
Rain or Shine felt the same way Terrafirma did during their encounter last April 15, in which it equalled the league’s record for threes made with 23 on the way to a 124-117 win, in the process chalking up its seventh win.
“Hindi talaga para sa amin ‘tong larong ‘to,” he admitted. “They just shot really well. Ginebra really just made their threes. I think they made 21 three-point shots, which is almost the record. They’re two short of the record.
“So, it’s really hard to beat a team shooting that well,” he furthered. “I don’t think we could’ve done anything on our side, sabi ko nga they really shot the ball well, and on our side we couldn’t execute the way we wanted to do.”
For now, all they can do is find ways to address Lemetti’s absence, whether through other players stepping up or possibly fresher schemes.
“Of course, we miss Felix. Pero tanggap na namin ‘yun eh,” Guiao said. “You have to move forward from that, and you have to accept that and embrace that, and find ways to mitigate or find ways to compensate for that.
“We’ll have to look for that somewhere else. Baka may maka-puno nun. Kaya ginagamit pa rin namin ‘yung mga rookies namin, and then we’re trying to pati si Mamu ginagawa naming point guard paminsan just to see how that works out.”
At the same time, they’re trying to get that ninth win, which shall be enough for the Elasto Painters to clinch a Top Four spot and a twice-to-beat incentive.
“Our record’s still good, and the only thing that’s important to us is to make nine wins, get a twice-to-beat advantage, and then wait for your matchup and prepare for them,” said the 67-year-old mentor.
